Gender in music education has traditionally been approached through binary categories (Bayton, 1998; Green, 1997; Hallam et al., 2008), positioning students as male or female participants shaped by social norms. While this body of research has provided valuable insights, it risks obscuring the fluidity and multiplicity of lived gendered experiences (Nichols, 2013; Palkki, 2020; Author, 2025). This raises the question: How can gender in music education be theorized and analyzed in an ethical manner that acknowledges the multiplicity of gender modalities?This paper proposes a theoretical reframing of gender in music education by integrating Judith Butler’s concept of performativity (Butler, 1990/2006, 1993/2011), Karen Barad’s agential realism (Barad, 2003, 2007), Florence Ashley’s notion of gender modality (Ashley, 2022; Ashley et al., 2024), and treating masculinity and femininity as independent dimensions rather than as opposite poles of a spectrum.Butler’s work reveals how gender is constituted through repeated social performances, while also allowing for performative possibilities (Butler, 1990/2006, p. 180) that subvert normative categories. Barad’s agential realism expands this view by emphasizing the intra-action of discourse and materiality, positioning matter as an active force in shaping identities. Bringing these perspectives together makes it possible to theorize gender as a dynamic and relational process unfolding within material-discursive contexts of music-making. Within this framework, Ashley’s concept of gender modality provides a vocabulary for describing how individuals relate to the sex assigned at birth in diverse ways, emphasizing multiplicity and contextual variation.The paper positions these concepts as resources for rethinking how gender can be studied and understood in music education. While short empirical vignettes from electric guitar and bass students in Norwegian upper secondary schools are included to illustrate the argument, the emphasis lies on exploring the theoretical implications of combining Butler, Barad, and Ashley.This conceptualization opens new possibilities for analyzing the multifaceted influences on gender in music education. The paper argues that gender in music education should be understood as constituted through entanglements of material, discursive, and contextual influences across learning environments. This theoretical reframing has significant implications for music education research, policy, and pedagogy, inviting scholars and practitioners to engage with gender as an evolving, entangled, and performative possibility.