Sarah Hadley Yakier was one of 15 musically gifted students, who at age five was selected to attend the New York-based Special Music School. She then went on to the Manhattan School of Music, where she studied with Grigory Kalinovsky and won first-place prizes in the New York State Music Teachers Jr. String Competition and the Eastern Division Music Teachers Jr. String Competition. She then went on to study violin at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln where she studied under Zakhar Bron. She received her bachelor of fine arts in violin from the New England Conservatory where she studied under under Donald Weilerstein and Soo Vim Kim where she continues her masters program.

While in Europe she has performed at summer festivals in Switzerland, Poland, Belgium, and Greece, among other countries. One of her most recent performances was at the Ecoles d'Art Americaines de Fontainebleau, where she earned the Ravel Foundation's Quartet Prize.