The Isabel acknowledges the generosity and support of those who have helped make possible the 2025-2026 season.
Season Benefactor
The Alexander Murray Jeffery Fund
Bader & Overton Canadian Piano Competition Benefactor
Performance Benefactor
Teh Jennifer Velva Bernstein Memorial Fund
Imagine Isabel Arts Incubator Supporters
Thank you to The Ballytobin Foundation for their ongoing generous support.
Concert Underwriters
The Shelagh and David Williams Music Programming Fund
The Jaffer Family Fund
Caroline Davis
Indigenous Arts Supporters
The George H. Stedman Estate Foundation
Neil Jacoby and Karen Brown
Thank you to
The Joseph S. Stauffer Foundation Fund for the Arts
George Taylor Richardson Memorial Fund
for their support of special projects at the Isabel
Thank you to Moira Hudgin for her donation of the Yves Beaupre Harpsichord
Hotel Sponsor
Broadcast Partner
Jennifer Velva Bernstein Performance Hall
We thank Marjorie Ernestine Bernstein for her generous $3.5 million endowment gift in her daughter’s honour. Jennifer Velva Bernstein loved the arts and had dedicated herself to creating a fairer world. It is in this spirit that the Isabel will honour the arts and social justice for many generations to come.
The Baders
Alfred Bader (BSc’45, BA’46, MSc’47, LLD’86) arrived at Queen’s in the autumn of 1941. What he experienced had a profound and lasting effect on his life and work. As a measure of his gratitude, Dr. Bader, together with his beloved wife, Isabel (LLD’07), has given back to Queen’s in countless ways, transforming student life and learning, enriching culture and the arts, and nurturing the spirit of initiative that is at the heart of the Queen’s experience, and so fully embodied by the Baders.
Alfred and Isabel Bader made a transformational gift to assist in the development of the Isabel Bader Centre for the Performing Arts. The Isabel was inspired by the Baders’ love – of the arts, of Queen’s, and of each other – and is named in Isabel’s honour.
Bringing the Isabel to Life
Funding to bring the Isabel from concept to completion was provided by several major supporters. The total cost of the project was $72 million.
- The Bader family: $31 million
- The Government of Canada: $15 million through the Major Infrastructure Component of the 2007 Building Canada Fund.
- The Government of Ontario: $15 million
- The City of Kingston: $6 million
- Queen’s University: $5 million