Ms. Yates was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. Music was her calling early on in life and manifested itself on the trumpet at the age of 13. By the age of 19, Ms. Yates was performing regularly with the Louisville Symphony Orchestra, Louisville Bach Society, Louisville Ballet and the Kentucky Opera as well as summers with the Iroquois Amphitheater and Monticello Festival.

Since then she has performed with orchestras throughout the southeast and mid-west United States, toured with Broadway productions, held the position as Professor of Trumpet at Columbus State University Schwob School of Music, taught hundreds of camps, and performed as a soloist and clinician throughout the US and EU. Recently, Ms. Yates spent four years living in Ghent, Belgium where she was Artist in Residence at the Lemmensinstituut, (Catholic University Leuven, Belgie) under the tutelage of Mnr. Leon Petre. While in Europe, she performed extensively throughout Vlaanderen with the Vlaamse Opera, Orchestre de chambre de Wallonie, chamber groups, brass bands and as a soloist.

In 2006, Ms. Yates was endorsed by Eclipse Trumpets UK as one of their artists and is also a Certified Consultant for GR Technologies. Projects in the works include her first solo CD "Chocolade" due out winter of '09, "21st Century Trumpet" with partner and fellow Eclipse artist Pat Harbison, and methods on articulation and piccolo trumpet. Ms. Yates holds a Master's degree in Performance and Literature from the Eastman School of Music where she studied with Barbara Butler and worked extensively with Charles Geyer. Her teachers also include Leon Rapier, James Thompson and Leon Petre.