Sita Dimitroff Milchev

After graduation, I spent the summer in Europe, being guided by my mom who took me everywhere she had lived as a young girl, from Paris to Milano. Then I came home to take advantage of my scholarship at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. After a year, I was kicked out of school for calling the Director a martinet…it was the same year that Mario Savio had the “free speech” movement at Cal. Gosh, Brilliance was in all the Bay Area schools then.

I then attended a summer school at Juilliard School of Music, at the old campus at W.120th Street in New York, not at Lincoln Center where it is now, and auditioned for the regular fall semester. During the summer I also worked for the Anti-Poverty Board and was an assistant to the assistant, Julius Edelstein, of the Mayor of New York City .

I attended Juilliard for a few years and left before graduation because I thought I knew everything. During my years at Juilliard, I sang at Carnegie Hall three times as a soloist, and many times with Lenny Bernstein. When Pres. Kennedy was shot, I was among those chosen by Mr. Bernstein to sing for the memorial on television which was a big deal back then.

I came back to San Francisco in ’65 and worked during the day at a job that held no satisfaction for me, but in the evenings, I sang at a bunch of clubs. I did shows at the
NCO clubs both at the Presidio and in Monterey.

Having attended Bulgarian dances since I was a child, it was no surprise to me that that was where I met my future husband, Boyan Milchev. He having been in the states for only 15 years after escaping from Bulgaria. We were married three months later and had a wonderful 30 years together until he crossed over in ’98. We lived in my old home on Marguerite Avenue in Mill Valley, then moved up to Gualala, Mendocino County, Northern California, in ’75. My husband was in the trades, being a Painting Contractor. We also did catering locally known as Balkan Catering.

I sang in local productions and also was part of the “shows” of Peter Arnott of Sausalito. I was one of the first women to ever sing on the Bohemian Club stage in San Francisco. I have sung with Peter Arnott Productions for 25 years. I still do a show for him on occasion but mostly sing at Christmas, weddings, funerals, and for fun locally. I play with a group of crazy musicians here in Gualala,, some of whom don’t even read music yet (musicians?), playing English Hand Ringing bells, called the Ernest Bloch Bells. They are the Bloch bells because they were purchased with money inherited from him.

I have two children, Ivan, who just turned 30, is married, has two little boys and is the best Jeep Tech in the U.S.of A. at Autoworld in Petaluma, and who lives in Santa Rosa. My daughter, Lucienne, turns 28 this year, is married to an auto body man, Dave, and they have three step-kids of his, two of whom live at home, one a freshman and one in the 7th grade, and two little girls of their own not in school yet.. Actually, technically, I am a great-grandma as Dave’s oldest step daughter had a baby two years ago….Dave is a budding photographer having learned a lot of his trade from my mother, who not only was an accomplished artist in more than ten fields, but an accomplished photographer herself. My daughter runs the business of Old Stage Studios, with me and Dave, and that promotes my mother’s photography. My daughter lives up the driveway from me in Gualala.

Both of my children attended Tam because I wanted them to have an experience that you can only get at Tam, but it had changed so much since when I was there, that they both took the proficiency test when they turned 16, and went to college instead.

I live by myself now, working part-time at the local Jewish deli, actually, the only deli in town, and love the solitude that being by ones-self brings. I do miss the comradeship and sharing that having a significant other helps with, but I have many friends to talk with, and my grandkids are a delight and always under foot. I also sew and mend all the time.

I think I live in paradise. The weather is the best at all times, although it can get pretty hot even on the coast and two years it snowed up here on the ridge. I live on my parents 35 acre farm type property that they left me,(my mother only crossed over last year at 90 years old) with an orchard of very old fruit trees, a concord grape arbor, a house that needs a new roof, seven outdoor cats, a dog named Hooper who was a gift from my son so we don’t know what kind of dog he is, and a small swimming pool that you almost can dive in. At the moment I am being invaded by blackberry bushes that won’t quit! I hope to get a kiln and potter’s wheel next year and make some ceramics after my mother’s ideas.

I never had any goals or real dreams when I was growing up , except to survive in the best possible manner. I think I have done that pretty well and am proud of what I have accomplished in my years. I have a few regrets but as the song says, what I did, I did for love. P.S. My birthday is on Christmas so send me a card.

My email is: sita@thegrid.net