Kathmandu

Gopal Yonjan (1943–1997) was one of the most prominent musicians — composer, director, lyricist, singer and arranger — in the history of Nepali music. He has left behind a staggering musical legacy, which could have disappeared had they not been documented and archived, all thanks to the late singer’s wife Renchin Yonjan who started archiving his work 18 years ago after his death. She collected his compositions and tried to compile them as a list. And now the Cornell University Library in New York, USA has undertaken the task of archiving his musical works in its Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections that is housed in the Carl A Kroch Library.

“It is a sharing,” Renchin expresses about the good news. “I feel that it is not just for an individual that Gopal Yonjan is going to the Cornell University. I am happy because it is a representation of Nepal and the diversity of Nepal.”

As per their agreement, Yonjan will be made available across the world for students for educational purposes, research but not for commercial purposes.

The seed of the archiving with Cornell University was planted two years ago when Kathryn March (one of the professors of Cornell who had met Yonjan for their anthropological studies when he was alive) suggested Renchin to archive Yonjan’s work at the University. She was looking for an appropriate place to archive whatever she has collected of his work.