ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Crystal Sellers Battle grew up singing in church. It’s something she didn’t think twice about until the day of her first voice lesson in undergrad. 

"They said I had to choose between gospel and classical, I couldn’t do both," explains Sellers Battle. 

That decision became her first entry into studying diversity in music. 

“What it showed me is that I wanted to be fully seen," said Sellers Battle. "I couldn’t do that if I had to leave a portion of myself at the studio door”.

Now in her role as associate dean of equality and inclusion at the Eastman School of Music, Sellers Battle wants to make sure students now don’t have that experience. 

“Gospel has been one of those places where people are often asked to choose which one makes the most sense, which one is the most comfortable," said Sellers Battle. "If you do one, you can't be considered legitimate in the other."

For decades, music schools like Eastman focused on teaching western classical music, or, as Sellers Battle puts it, music from dead white men. One of her goals is to make genres like gospel and jazz equal to classical.

“The study of any form of music is really important because there are so many elements in creating the music we love to listen to," said Seller Battle. "It shouldn't be an evaluation that if it's western classical it gets a higher evaluation than say a Beyonce."

Sellers Battle started hosting Context Conferences in her new role. They bring music schools from across the country together. 

"What often happens is these organizations talk about them separately in their own governing board organizations," she said. "But to be able to bring them all together, to have it at one time was pretty powerful."

Whether you came from a classical background or grew up singing gospel or you want to study both, Crystal Sellers Battle hopes you find the place for you.