Join the Duke community for a memorable afternoon at Houston's iconic Rothko Chapel, a place where art, reflection, and community come together.

Led by the Prelude Music Foundation, this interactive family friendly experience celebrates the power of music to strengthen relationships, inspire joy, and cultivate human flourishing. Through singing, movement, playful musical activities, mindfulness practices centered on gratitude, and a meaningful family craft, children and adults will share moments of creativity, reflection, and connection.

Imam Abdullah Antepli will join us and share brief remarks about his role as President of Rothko Chapel.

In the midst of busy lives, this afternoon offers an opportunity to slow down, be fully present with those you love, and experience the simple joy of making music together. No musical experience is necessary, only a willingness to sing, laugh, explore, and connect.

Let's create lasting memories, meet fellow Duke alumni, friends and families, and discover how music can nurture curiosity, belonging, and well-being across generations. All are welcome!

The Rothko Chapel

The Rothko Chapel serves as a reflective, sacred space and presents programming that promotes spirituality, creativity, dialogue and action leading to more equitable, empowered and engaged communities in Houston and beyond. Founded by Dominique and John de Menil, the Chapel was dedicated in 1971 as an interfaith, nonsectarian sanctuary, and invites visitors from around the world to experience the power and sanctity of Mark Rothko’s monumental paintings alongside Barnett Newman’s Broken Obelisk sculpture dedicated to the legacy of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The Chapel is open for visitation, Tuesday through Sunday, 10am-6pm. For more information, please visit https://rothkochapel.org.

The Prelude Music Foundation

The Prelude Music Foundation (PMF) uses music to accelerate early learning, helping children close developmental gaps and enter kindergarten ready to thrive. Since 2014, PMF has brought joyful, developmentally appropriate music and movement classes to over 20,000 young children in under-resourced schools across the city of Houston. The organization proudly partners with families, teachers, school leaders, physicians, and foster parents to bring peace, love, and joy through music. 

PMF's dynamic, high-impact program utilizes Music Together®, a research-based music and movement program, to advance the cognitive, academic, and musical development of Pre-K and Kindergarten age children at home, in schools, and in communities. This coming school year the PMF will bring weekly music classes to over 4000 children in Houston.  

About our speaker 

Imam Abdullah Antepli is the President of the Rothko Chapel in Houston, Texas—an independent, globally recognized institution dedicated to art, spirituality, and human rights. A globally acknowledged scholar and leader of cross-religious and cross-cultural dialogue, he has long been a pioneering voice in interfaith understanding and ethical public leadership.

He previously served as Associate Vice President and Associate Provost for Community Engagement at Duke University, and as Professor of the Practice of Religion, Ethics, and Interfaith Relations at Duke’s Sanford School of Public Policy and Divinity School. He built multiple organizations and initiatives that facilitated religious and spiritual life on American college campuses, sowing seeds of understanding between religions while upholding their cultural integrity and dignity. In recognition of his lifelong contributions to interfaith leadership and scholarship, Antepli was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2023.

From 1995 to 2003, he worked on a variety of faith-based humanitarian and relief projects in Myanmar (Burma) and Malaysia with the Association of Social and Economic Solidarity with Pacific Countries. From 2003 to 2005, he served as the first Muslim chaplain at Wesleyan University and later became Associate Director of the Islamic Chaplaincy Program and Interfaith Relations at Hartford Seminary in Connecticut, where he also served as an adjunct faculty member.

At Duke University, he served as the institution’s first Muslim chaplain and director of the Center for Muslim Life from 2008 to 2014, then as the university’s Chief Representative for Muslim Affairs from 2014 to 2019, and as Associate Director of the Duke Islamic Studies Center from 2014 to 2015. 

Imam Antepli also served as Senior Fellow on Jewish-Muslim Relations at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem, where he founded and co-directed the widely recognized Muslim Leadership Initiative, which fosters mutual understanding and trust between Muslim and Jewish communities. 

The NonProfit Times named him among its Power & Influence Top 50 leaders of 2019, describing him as one of the most prominent Muslim leaders in higher education.

As a Muslim-American imam and one of the few scholars bridging faith, ethics, and public policy—and as someone born in Turkey who has lived in three different countries—Imam Abdullah Antepli brings to his leadership an extraordinary combination of intellectual, ethnic, religious, and cultural diversity.

Registration

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Registrants will be given an opportunity to submit questions for the speaker during registration.

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