The United States’ music culture is predominantly focused on the Western music tradition. Yet, the population in the United States is wildly diverse and continues to become even more so at a rapid rate. Because of this, culturally relevant teaching has become an increasingly discussed topic in music education. Why do some music educators feel out of place with music outside of the classical tradition? It can be traced backed to the Eurocentrism of music schools in the United States. Music schools focus primarily on the classical Western music realm, including topics such as music theory, socially accepted ensembles and performance practices, and more. This tradition is a longstanding one. Many established music professors remain in their realm of comfort teaching familiar music and concepts to their students, since that is what they were raised and educated on. This paper looks to find how collegiate music professors at an urban public university view and have experienced the concepts related to culturally relevant teaching, especially when working with future music educators
