This article examines the main competencies of a modern music teacher. The purpose of the article is to characterize the essence, structure and features of the formation of ethno-artistic competence of a music teacher. The used research methods are: analysis and generalization, modelling, synthesis. Results. It has been established that the actions of the music teacher should be primarily aimed at the formation of key competencies, since the training can be successful in which the following chain is clearly traced: from a competent teacher to a competent student. Therefore, the importance of developing new approaches to the formation of musical art teachers’rich professional, personal and creative potential, which allows realizing the educational possibilities of ethno-artistic imitation, becomes obvious. In this regard, the issues related to the interpretation of the concept of «ethno-artistic culture», the means and methods of its formation in the system of professional musical education are considered. Moreover, the author believes that it is also important that ethnomusical education should provide opportunities for ethnic, ethno-cultural, ethno-musical identification in the course of involvement in ethnic musical values for the formation of ethnocultural identity. Conclusions. The author of the article concludes that the process of forming the future specialists’ ethno-artistic competence is effective under the following conditions: ethnomusical education should become a means of consolidating peoples, a factor in the activation of intercultural interaction in the conditions of multicultural education; it should be closely related to polymusical education (where integrative processes are strengthened, ensured by the openness of other cultures, a polymusical competence is forming, and the polymusical education role is intensifying). It has been established that the formation of a specialist who has ethno-artistic competence is more effective in the process of his/her purposeful multicultural education, which is carried out with the help of introducing a multicultural component into professional and pedagogical training, which at the same time promotes the development of intercultural dialogue under the conditions of a multi-ethnic world

competence, competence approach, music teacher, ethno-artistic competence