The purpose of this case study was to examine how one music teacher responds to student's cultural backgrounds through a middle school instrumental music programme in the US. The study sought to uncover the events, situations and circumstances that served as catalysts for curricular change and the rationales that gave it purpose. It also examined how concepts of musical and cultural ‘self’ and ‘other’ informed a teacher's culturally responsive teaching and multicultural education and created various tensions in and outside of the classroom. Implications for practice are described based on the findings.