Mona Bates

Bates was born in Burlington, Ontario to Dr. Frank De Witt Bates and Annabel (nee Grant) Bates.[1] She began playing the piano at fives years of age.[2] She performed in her first public recital two years later.[3][4] She studied music with J. E. P. Aldous, Edward Fisher, Augustus Stephen Vogt and Viggo Kihl.[5] Bates attended at the Toronto Conservatory of Music as a child and was the youngest student to be named a "First Honour" graduate.[2] She began teaching at the school in 1912.[5]

Bates met Ernest Hutcheson in 1916 while in New York on Chautauqua.[2] She went on to study with him and work as his assistant at the Juilliard School.[5] During the First World War she played at soldier camps in Canada and the United States.[2] Bates debuted in New York City at Aeolian Hall on April 9, 1920, where she was noted by the New York Times as receiving "frequent and hearty applause."[6] She performed as a soloist with the Lewisohn Stadium Orchestra and the New York Symphony Orchestra.[4] She went on to tour internationally performing in London, Budapest, Vienna and Paris.[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".[7] While touring Europe she often performed using the name Anom Setab, a reverse spelling of her name, to appear more exotic.[5]

Bates retired from touring in 1925 to open a music studio in Toronto, where she taught for several decades.[5] The school operated out of an old Massey family mansion on Jarvis Street.[3] Her students included Margaret Miller Brown, George Crum, Marian Grudeff, Clifford Poole, and Naomi Yanova.[5] In 1931, she established the Ten Piano Ensemble, which was affiliated with the Musical Manifesto Group of Toronto.[1] During the war, the two groups held concerts to entertain service men and raise money for the Red Cross.[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]

Bates died in Toronto on March 29, 1971, from Pakinson's disease, having retired four years prior due to illness.[4] In an obituary about Bates' life the Toronto Daily Star referred to her as "Canada's first internationally famous pianist".