Remembering Intended Student Rohith Gopal

Just weeks before receiving his letter of admission to study at Berklee, songwriter, musician, and artist Rohith Gopal of California tragically passed away in a car accident on March 21, 2015. To honor his memory and musical legacy, his family named a dorm room in Berklee’s 160 Massachusetts Avenue campus building after their beloved son and brother and in support of the Berklee Fund.

Bhuvana Gopal, Rohith’s mother, says he lived and breathed music and “there was nothing else more important to him.” She notes that, in the weeks before his passing, Rohith worked tirelessly, teaching kids art and music at the Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater Conejo Valley in California while writing and recording his songs at night, drawing inspiration from Simon and Garfunkel, the Beatles, Bob Dylan, and Harry Belafonte H'14. “It’s almost like he knew he had to do this fast because otherwise time was ending,” she says.

Rohith’s band, Folkways, released those songs on a posthumous album on November 13, 2015, what would have been the budding musician’s 19th birthday; all proceeds will go to the Pain and Palliative Care Society in India, with plans to release more songs Rohith had written and intended to record.

Rohith’s father, Krishnan Gopal, says, “He was single-minded in his pursuit of getting into Berklee. He said, ‘If I don’t go to Berklee, it doesn’t really matter where I go.’”

Rohith intended to expand his composition skills and was interested in a dual major in composition and music education. Damien Bracken, Berklee’s dean of admissions, notes that, when asked how he would contribute to Berklee, Rohith responded that he wished to inspire others through his composition and collaboration in a musical setting. Though Rohith was confident that he would gain acceptance to Berklee after his audition and interview, his letter of admission arrived after his passing.  

“It would have been just bliss for him at Berklee,” says Bhuvana. “It was joy—music was just joy for him.” Rohith’s philosophy of life is perhaps best summed up in these words, which he shared before his passing:

"The only thing keeping you from pursuing what you want is yourself. We need to embrace the idea that our futures are not secure. That things will change constantly and everything ends. The purpose of life is to be happy and make others happy with your existence. Everything else is secondary because you can’t take anything to your grave. But you can leave an impact on lives that will outlive your existence.”