To provide meaningful and motivating connections between students and ensembles, teachers must realize that students' prior experience profoundly affects learning. Many of these experiences are inextricably linked to cultural affiliation. Cultural affiliation is a powerful context for prior experience, and the fundamental principle framing this article is that "culture determines how people think, believe, and behave, and these, in turn, affect how people teach and learn." Culture is not restricted to ethnicity; students also share affiliation based on age, geography, economic class, and religion. Directors seeking to develop engaging, inclusive programs should draw from students' experiences to connect students to traditional and nontraditional ensembles. Culture, whether from ethnic or other origins, has great power to motivate students and should be used as contexts for learning. Creating culturally responsive ensembles will increase student interest and enrollment as well as garner the support from school and community stakeholders needed to sustain musical performing groups in schools. In this article, the author discusses how to engage and educate students with culturally responsive performing ensembles. A list of specialized and alternative ensemble resources to help teachers get started with ensembles is presented. (Contains 11 notes.)