Relationships are the heart of music teaching and learning, serving as the conduit for enacting care, trust, and belonging (Hendricks, 2018). Yet, relationships can be sites of exclusion when marked by teacher bias, cultural disconnection, behavioral misinterpretation, and disciplinary practices focused on control and punishment. Trauma scholars position unconditionality as a guiding orientation for educators to build affirming relationships without exception (Venet, 2021).The purpose of this philosophical inquiry is to critically examine the potential of unconditionality as a relational orientation in music education, attending to its spiritual dimensions and transformative possibilities. Conceptualized for therapeutic contexts (Rogers, 1957) and adapted for K-12 education (Kohn, 2005), unconditional positive regard is a concept grounded in positive psychology and requires educators to accept students “for who they are, rather than for what they do” (Kohn, 2005, p. 20). Acceptance is not based on compliance or performance but communicates the enduring message: “I care about you. You have value. You don’t have to do anything to prove it to me, and nothing’s going to change my mind” (Venet, 2021, p. 98). Extended to music, this orientation “presumes that every individual has the capacity for musical responsiveness, participation, and development” (Mitchell, 2023, p. 366).An abolitionist frame positions unconditionality as a liberatory act (Love, 2019; Shalaby, 2017). Within this framing, unconditionality challenges ranking systems, competitive structures, deficit labels, and hierarchical teacher-student dynamics that can put stipulations on belonging. When students are accepted only conditionally, they learn to accept themselves also with strings attached, performing a “false self” to secure approval (Kohn, 2005). Unconditionality resists this distortion of belonging, and opens pathways for authentic musicking (Madden, 2024). Drawing from multiple faith and spiritual traditions that affirm the sacred worth of every individual, unconditionality counters transactional, technical approaches that diminish and devalue music as a deeply spiritual endeavor (Boyce-Tillman, 2016). This inquiry invites a reimagining of relationships where unconditionality is not a strategy, but a way of being. Discussion will highlight systemic barriers to unconditional relationships, such as institutional structures and rigid traditions. Common misconceptions of unconditionality will also be considered, such as conflation with permissiveness and educator blame. Unconditionality is positioned to unsettle oppressive systems in schooling, opening space for human flourishing and the transformative practice of freedom.