This interview has been edited for clarity.

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Can you talk a little bit about yourself?

I’m Raghav Ramgopal. I’m a junior at Pinewood, and I enjoy singing, music, and politics. 

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Your piece Dearest Ticonderoga Pencil was published in the 2021 print version of Tabula Rasa. Notably, it’s written in the form of a letter. Is this a form you typically like writing in, and if so, why?

It is a form I typically like writing because it makes everything more personal, and it gives me more purpose to write with more feeling instead of just telling. I get to show, not tell.

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What has been your favorite piece of literature that you’ve read in school?

I really enjoyed the Joy Luck Club because it was very personal, and it also took place in the Bay Area, and I enjoyed that. I like how I was able to see my own family through it in some aspects. With Mr. Wells, I was able to explore how superstition was present in the novel and then write an essay about how that connected to my own family’s views on superstition. That has been my favorite assignment in all of high school so far.

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Aside from occasionally writing, you’re also a talented musician. Can you talk a little bit about your musical background and what exactly it is that you do?

I am a classically-trained or classically training singer. I first joined music by accident. One of my preschool friends was just joining a choir in first grade, and my mom wanted me to have something to do because I was just sitting at home all day, doing nothing and watching TV. She was like, “Okay, we'll sign you up for this choir.” I went to the choir, and I really, really, really liked it. I decided that in addition to choir, I would start doing a type of singing called Carnatic singing, which is South Indian classical singing. And so I did that, but it wasn't really my thing. But when I joined Pinewood in seventh grade, I also quit my choir and began Western classical singing, which is like opera. For like those really classical music nerds out there, [I also began singing] art songs, other Western music from Europe, stuff like that that was before the 21st century, and [songs from] before pop songs became prevalent. Now I've had the opportunity to attend a lot of music festivals and be featured in a lot of cool music programs. I study at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music as a pre-college student, which means I go there every Saturday. It's like a second school, and I take classes. I study with Ms. Eum-Mee Ko.

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Can you explain what the SFCM is? What was your experience like as a pre-college student there?

Across the United States, there are several music schools. There's Julliard, Curtis, and other schools like that, and one such music school is the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. The San Francisco Conservatory of Music is a conservatory where there are collegiate students and graduate students who study full-time there. In addition to the collegiate division and post-grad division, there's a division for six to 18 year olds. From the time you start school to the time you end secondary school, or high school, you attend SFCM all Saturday, and you major in an instrument. In my case, my instrument is voice and vocal music. You have to take classes—they're electives that are specific to your instrument, and you also have to take other basic music theory, musicianship, and choral classes. It's a really cool experience, but it's a lot of time commitment. I am there until after dinner time on Saturday, and I go first thing in the morning.

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Do you see any commonalities between music and writing?

Yes, especially in singing. Singing obviously has lyrics, and a lot of those lyrics for classical music were originally written as poems, so I’ve had to use my AP Lang skills and analyze poems by Robert Louis Stevenson (the author of Jekyll and Hyde), I’ve had to sing French poems. To me, music is the intersection of all art forms because it’s influenced by other art forms, such as writing.

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What are the differences between classical singing and regular singing?

Classical singing follows a very specific set of rules and styles. You have to have specific tones, specific techniques that help you resonate your voice without using a microphone. You’re not allowed to use a microphone, yet you have to be able to sing to thousands of people in some cases—so you have to keep working on that technique. Fun fact: Katy Perry is classically trained.

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You’ve sent me a lot of pieces of classical music through text. Who do you think are your favorite classical musicians or composers, and why?

I like Franz Liszt. He doesn’t really write vocal music, but his music is very, very good. It has a lot of emotion behind it, and you can feel the emotion. It’s very palpable. I also like Debussy. 

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Really?!!! What’s your favorite piece by him (Debussy)?

That’s hard. I like him because his music is the same as Liszt’s, except he also has vocal compositions. I get to learn him. I also really like Ralph Vaughn Williams. It’s very different, more modernist. Very fun to learn. Also, English art songs and English singing is very fun to learn. Interestingly enough, English singing is the hardest type of classical singing because as an American, you have such a wide accent, but the whole point behind classical singing is a narrow accent. I can’t sing like I normally talk in English, and it’s just the most difficult thing in the world sometimes.

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Do you like pop music? If so, who are your favorite artists?

I love pop music. I love Pink Pantheress. I’ve been going through a strong Lady Gaga phase recently—I’ve been listening to “Born This Way” every day. I also enjoy Katy Perry. Katy Perry is the first and only pop concert I’ve been to with my mom. I enjoy indie music as well—Sara Kinsley. She’s a college student.

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You were featured in NPR’s “From the Top.” Enlighten us on what that is and how you got this opportunity.

NPR’s “From the Top” is an NPR radio show and podcast that highlights the stories and music of young classical musicians. Mostly, it’s teenagers, and sometimes, it’s college students. For this process, I got it in an expedited manner and in a different manner than most other people get the opportunity. I attended a summer program at the music festival called Tanglewood. It happened on the first day of school, so I skipped the first day of school and did my audition online at home. I also had to submit stories about myself in a non-music manner because part of the show is being interviewed. I talked about my affinity for politics and even submitted some poetry that I wrote, but I’m a really bad poet.

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The stories you submitted about yourself in a non-music manner—were they just supposed to complement who you are as a person?

Yes. It was meant to show that teenagers are doing music and other stuff and what may influence their music in some cases. Each show follows a theme. A lot of my show was about social justice and connecting to your own roots and community. This month, since it’s Disability Awareness month, they have a lot of musicians with disabilities. One of my friends who is visually impaired was featured on the show recently.

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The previous summer, you participated in the Boston University Tanglewood Institute (BUTI). How was the experience, and what was your biggest takeaway from it?

It’s run in part by the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Our chorus got to work with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and they basically accompanied. We were also featured in all of the music and concerts of the Tanglewood Music Festival, which is a three-month long music festival. I performed in the same concert as John Williams, and I met a bunch of famous people, like Yo-yo Ma. He was there, and he spent his entire summer there. Tanglewood is a very musically significant place—it was basically an extension of my SFCM pre-college days because I had to attend academic classes and music performance classes and stuff like that in addition to performing in the concerts. My main takeaway was that I met so many people that I would have never met before. We live in such a bubble here, as cliché as it is. But I went to Tanglewood, and I was enlightened. It was not Bay Area core. It also showed me that I could take music professionally if I wanted to.

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Were you not confident in yourself before?

No.

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Who do you think has influenced your music career the most?

I think my teacher, Ms. Eum-Mee Ko has influenced my music career the most because she has provided me with all these opportunities, and she has trained me in a way that has helped me be able to get these opportunities. Without her, I would not be able to have attended Tanglewood, I wouldn’t have been featured on “From the Top,” and I would not be at the SFCM. She’s also very kind and has helped me find myself as a person and be more confident as a musician, and I do not know what I would do without her. 

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Do you have any words you’d like to impart to other rising musicians?

Try everything. Take every opportunity that you can. You have a shot. Even if you think you’re not good enough or that you’re not going to get the audition, you have a shot. In my “From the Top” audition, I messed up so badly in the middle of my song that I had to ask them to start over. I was not feeling it. I was like no, not today. I was like, for sure they’re not going to like me. But magically, I got a phone call one day and was told that I was selected.