ISHPEMING — Just a few weeks ago, Brandon Nelson, a 42-year-old Ishpeming resident was diagnosed with Stage IV retroperitoneal angiosarcoma. The rare form of cancer had already metastasized to his bones and liver.

Nelson is well-known in the Upper Peninsula and beyond for his talent as a composer of concert band music. He has also worked as a public schools music education teacher and is former director of the Negaunee City Band.

The cancer diagnosis left him feeling numb with shock.

“At first I thought, ‘did I hear this right?’ You try to make sense of it and come to terms with it eventually. Everybody is different; just like grief itself everybody has their own process,” he said.

For Nelson, the process of coming to terms with his terminal illness inspired him to launch what he refers to as his “final mission.”

He seeks to grow the Youtube page that features his original compositions, and in doing so create revenue to help support his family once he passes.

“Something in my own mind said, ‘I don’t know exactly how long I have left, but I don’t want to spend it crying all the time or feeling bad all the time,'” he said. “You’re faced with what you are leaving behind. I guess I’m definitely leaving music so I should probably turn that into something that is not only an aesthetic benefit, but a material benefit to my wife and children.”

He is married to Becky Nelson and is father to twins Robert and Peter, 18, and daughter Aili, who is 16.

Nelson referred to music as being second to his children as being his greatest legacy to this world. Composing music is an interior calling that first reached out to him as a young child taking band class as a student in Ishpeming Public Schools.

“You cannot really repress it,” he said. “It’s just something you have to be, so even if you don’t necessarily make a living doing it, it’s something you find yourself going back to, thinking about, and feeling passionate about.”

Dave Dagenais was Nelson’s Ishpeming band teacher. The two have remained close throughout the years, with Dagenais speaking at the Feb. 16 ceremony inducting Nelson into the Marquette Music Hall of Fame.

“What made Brandon stand out is that he was very curious about writing music at a very young age. He was very interested in composing and arranging music,” Dagenais said. “He would ask me questions. This kid’s 10-years-old in fifth grade and he’s asking me things like, ‘how do you transpose for the alto sax and what’s the range of a tuba?'”

Dagenais described learning of Nelson’s cancer diagnosis as “very surreal.”

“He’s a really good human, that’s what I have trouble with about this. Bad things shouldn’t happen to anybody but he’s such a kind and compassionate person, that’s what makes me the saddest,” Dagenais said.

Nelson, who is also a licensed practical nurse, is undergoing hospice care, which for now is largely focused on pain management.

“I don’t feel like I want for anything medically. The hospice people have been very supportive. They are just great people. They make sure I’m as comfortable as I can be and I can do the things that I feel like I need to do,” he said.

Nelson said nobody can tell him for certain how much time he has left, but he plans to spend it composing music and focusing on the people he loves.

“I understand that people around me, especially people close to me, are going to go through their own grieving process and that’s natural,” he said.

To support Brandon Nelson’s final mission subscribe to his YouTube channel at youtube.com/@brandonnelsonmusic.

Brandon’s website can be viewed at www.bnelsonmusic.wordpress.com.