[5] Bates attended at the Toronto Conservatory of Music as a child and was the youngest student to be named a "First Honour" graduate.

[5] Bates was quoted in the Toronto Daily Star as saying that the experience of playing a musical arrangement in Budapest prepared by Count Apponyi on Franz Liszt's piano "one of the proudest moments of my life".

[3] Her students included Margaret Miller Brown, George Crum, Marian Grudeff, Clifford Poole, and Naomi Yanova.

[1] In addition to running the school Bates was a member of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra's women's committee and the Ontario Music Teachers' Association.

[4] In an obituary about Bates' life the Toronto Daily Star referred to her as "Canada's first internationally famous pianist".