Nikolay Minchev graduated from the Folkwang University of Arts in Essen (Germany) in the classes of Nana Yashvili and Mincho Minchev. From 2001 to 2003 he was first concertmaster of the Philharmonic Orchestra in Essen, and from 2003 he was concertmaster of the Wuppertal Symphony Orchestra. He is guest concertmaster of the West German Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Beethoven Symphony Orchestra in Bonn, the Bochum and Dortmund Symphony Orchestras, the Herford Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Flemish Symphony Orchestra. Since 2005 he has been a violin lecturer at the Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen.
He was awarded with the first prizes of the international Jan Kotsian competition (Czech Republic, 1988) and the Federal Jugend Musiziert competition in Germany (1996), the second prize of the international Ifra Niemann competition in Germany (1999), the awards for the debut of a musician of the year (Bulgaria, 1997) and for the youngest concertmaster in Germany (2001).
In 2001, he won the prize of the Fund for Musical Instruments in Germany and received a Nicolaus Galliano violin as a prize. He is a soloist of all major Bulgarian symphony orchestras. As a soloist and member of an instrumental trio with Beate Altenburg and Katerine Klipfe, with whom he also recorded, he participated in a number of international music festivals in Bulgaria and gave concerts in France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, North Macedonia, Norway, Russia, Ukraine and Bulgaria. The local audience enthusiastically welcomes his joint concerts with his father - Mincho Minchev, and the "Sofia Soloists" ensemble.