Support Carolyn Poppert's Stroke Recovery & Milton Nelson

Dear friends,

We are writing to inform you of a very difficult situation that has befallen on our esteemed Vice President of ASMAC, Milton Nelson.

For all of you who have known Milton over the years, and those who have come to know him through our hundreds of webinars and Master Classes that he has produced since the pandemic began in 2020, we are sure you will agree that he is a very special human being in our world of music.

Milton is one of the kindest, most gentle friends to all of us. He is an incredibly talented orchestrator, arranger, and keyboardist who reaches out to everyone, stays in touch with them, and helps whenever asked, selflessly.

Now it is time to give back to him in any way that we can.

A brief background of what has happened…

On Sunday, July 28th of this year, Milton’s wife Carolyn Poppert had a massive stroke and was in a coma for several weeks. She is a dancer and serves on the board of the West Hills Neighborhood Council. Carolyn has also actively volunteered for ASMAC events over the years.

She is now slowly improving while her brain is still rewiring. The nursing facility where she is living is providing physical therapy (PT), occupational therapy (OT), and speech therapy (ST), as they are key to recovering from a stroke. She will most likely remain there for another couple of months.

Milton has been at her side every day which has taken a major toll on his health. He was in the middle of orchestrating on a film project when the stroke happened.

As a result, the stress that Milton has been living with has caused him to sink into a deep depression. He is in a mental health center receiving the help he so desperately needs.

Milton and Carolyn live in a modest home. The cost of continual care, plus PT, OT, and ST add up very quickly. Some rough estimates include:

Based on these numbers, they will need a minimum of $30,000 per month for the proper care. This does not include additional expenses that may be necessary for MRIs, other procedures, medication, etc.

We have created this GoFundMe page on their behalf. Since we don't know how long recovery will be, we've set an initial goal of $120,000 to help Carolyn and Milton over the next several months.

As many of you know, Milton is a very private person. He is aware of the GoFundMe page with all funds raised going directly to them.

With the difficult times so many of us in our community are facing now, any contribution you can make will be deeply appreciated.

In gratitude,

Gayle Levant, President

Jeff Kellem, 2nd Vice President

American Society of Music Arrangers and Composers

asmac.org

p.s. A little bit more about Milton from Jeff:

Milton Nelson is a composer, orchestrator, arranger, keyboardist (big band and more), and Vice President of the American Society of Music Arrangers and Composers (ASMAC). He was part of the band on The Martin Short Show, arranger for The Wayne Brady Show, an orchestrator for the Emmys and Tonys, along with a number of films and tv shows. I was recently re-watching and enjoying Nathan Wang's score on which Milton was orchestrator for the film Playing with Fire (IMDb). For a sample of credits, see Milton Nelson's IMDb entry.

Who am I? My name is Jeff Kellem. I'm 2nd Vice President of ASMAC volunteering with Milton on a daily basis for our music society nonprofit organization. Milton is one of the reasons I was willing to join the board and later put my name up for the co-Vice President role last year. ASMAC has been my lifeline during the pandemic. Milton is responsible for the weekly events that helped during those early years.

Thanks for any help you're able to give. We will pass along any notes to Milton and Carolyn.