A final coda for Dennis Tini, a musician who touched the world

A final coda for Dennis Tini, a musician who touched the world

Here’s a Dennis Tini story. Early in his illustrious career, a friend named Lou Harp visited his house.

“Come in, Lou!” Dennis said excitedly. “I want to show you something!”

They marched through Dennis’ impressive music room, filled with instruments, awards, honors, plaques. Lew figured it was one of those he wanted to show off.

Instead, Dennis walked past all that stuff and led his friend down to the basement, where he stopped and proudly pointed to an old furnace that he had meticulously painted.

“What do you think?” he said.

Here’s another Dennis Tini story. Thousands of students came under his tutelage at Wayne State University, where he was an instructor and ultimately chair of the music department. One of those students was a young man with limited talent. One day, Dennis pulled him aside and gently asked, “Do you have any other interests besides music?”

Yes, the young man said. Why?

“Because I think you should pursue them.”

Don’t feel bad. The man became a doctor.

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Here’s one more Dennis Tini story. In July of 2021, we were together at our orphanage in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. In the middle of the night, the Haitian president, Jovenel Moïse, was assassinated. The whole city went on lockdown. The fear was that gangs, looters or other violent types might take advantage and begin random attacks.

Dennis stayed up that night, and the next three nights, patrolling the grounds with a flashlight. He took my wife and me aside and lifted every fork, spoon and pencil we had. “You see this?” he said. “This is a weapon!” He pointed to my throat. “You hit them here!” My eyes. “And here!” My knees. “And here!”

He also said, “You’re well known down here. So if we’re attacked, you are no longer Mitch Albom, you got that? You don’t say your name! If anyone asks, I’m Mitch Albom!”

In other words, if there was a bullet or a kidnapping meant for me, he was taking it.

It was the only time I’d come close to filling his shoes.

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Dennis teaches a self-defense class. Photo: Theresa Finck Photography

Memorable melody

Dennis Tini passed away last week at age 76. He suffered internal bleeding and his organs shut down. I stood in the hospital room, holding his hand as he fought for his life. I said a prayer over his body after his soul had departed.

But I still can’t accept it.

If you know musicians, you know they often have a unique gentility, an ability to make friends anywhere, alongside a smoldering artistic intensity that drives them to explore.

Dennis Tini embodied all that, in a kinetic, tightly muscled frame that, even into his 70s, could have passed for a retired welterweight. He brought passion to his music, his students, even his physical fitness. He was known for finger-wagging intensity when teaching (legend has it he once got so worked up during a choral rehearsal, he jabbed the baton through his own hand.)

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Photo: Theresa Finck Photography

But he was equally known for his curiosity and congeniality. He’d ask questions of anyone he encountered. He’d sprinkle in a foreign phrase if you were from overseas. If he knew someone you knew, he’d share a funny story about them. Once you met Dennis, you remembered Dennis. He was a melody you kept humming.

Detroit and Michigan are full of well-known people who studied under him or played with him. Dennis and acclaimed pianist Matt Michaels started Wayne State’s Jazz Studies program together. Chris Collins, who runs it now, was a Dennis protégé.

His obituary covered the biological info: Born in Endicott, New York, came to Detroit when he was 3, one of four kids, went to Cooley High, played accordion with his musician father as a teenager. Fell in love with piano, jazz, teaching, composing, traveling the world, especially in Europe and South Africa, where he toured and ultimately established a relief fund to support musicians.

But bios only tell you so much. Dennis’s first act was as an accomplished player. His second was as an esteemed professor, husband, father and ambassador.

His third act, to me, was his masterpiece.

Triumph over tragedy

Dennis retired from Wayne State in his late 60s. He envisioned golden years of composing, playing, traveling with bands. But as they say, if you want to make God laugh, tell Him your plans.

One day, Dennis was inflating a bicycle tire when it exploded near his head. The noise destroyed his hearing — at least the kind of hearing he needed to remain an elite musician. He couldn’t play the same way. He couldn’t meet the standards he had always demanded of his students.

It’s safe to say it depressed him. A musician robbed of his music? What would he do with the rest of his life? My wife and I called him one night, hoping to boost his spirits. When he said he had too much free time, we wondered if perhaps he’d consider visiting Haiti and the 60 kids at our orphanage. Honestly, we were just trying to cheer him up.

He came down once.

And he never stopped.

For the last seven years, Professor Emeritus Dennis J. Tini, revered by countless students, esteemed by countless musicians, spent part of nearly every month wearing shorts and polo shirts, and teaching Haitian orphans the violin, cello, piano, bass, drums, guitar or vocals.

He brought the same brilliance to a small, lime-green music room that he brought to lecture halls and concert stages. You’d see him in the early morning, leaning over children, teaching them how to hold the violin. You’d hear him late in the evenings, shouting over a drummer’s beat — “One-two—THREE, one-two—THREE!…”

You’d witness him waving his conductor’s hands in front of a half-dozen 5-year-olds. Once, during a Christmas visit, we heard a knock on our door, and opened it to see Dennis with an accordion behind a group of preschoolers, who launched into a squeaky but joyous “Jingle Bells.”

The Have Faith Haiti song, a tune written by Dennis’ wife April

Saying goodbye

No man stands taller than when he stoops to help a child, and no musician makes better harmony than when he lends his talent to orphaned kids. Dennis never took a penny for his service. He gathered instruments from generous donors all over Michigan and brought them down, sometimes one piece at a time. A cymbal this trip, a foot pedal that trip. Eventually, he built a music program so large we needed a new room for it.

That room is being built right now. The last conversation I had with Dennis was just a few weeks ago, when I FaceTimed him from Haiti inside that new room’s construction and showed him the many windows and closets he would soon have.

“Beautiful!” he exclaimed. “I can’t tell you how much this means to me!”

The only reason he wasn’t in Haiti was because he was recovering from a spill that broke some ribs. Not long after that, he told his lovely wife, April, that he wasn’t feeling well. It went on for a few days. When he had a hard time standing up, he was rushed to the hospital and put in intensive care.

He fought off death for the better part of a week. But unlike every other challenge he took on — jazz festivals, martial arts, becoming a volunteer firefighter — this one he could not master.

During his last day on Earth, I brought some of his former Haitian students, now in college in Michigan, to visit him at the hospital.

And even though he was unconscious, needing a tube to breathe, those kids maintained their reverence for him. They held his hand, and one by one, spoke to him aloud, all of them saying, in some way, “Mr. Dennis, I’m sorry that I haven’t been practicing as much as I should. Please come back to us, so you can yell at me.”

If only.

I often find myself singing when I write. Words on my keyboard mix with lyrics in my head. As I finish this column, I find myself humming two songs, “How Do You Keep the Music Playing,” and the timeless Carole King composition, “You’ve Got a Friend.”

Dennis lived those lines, “You just call out my name, and you know wherever I am, I’ll come running.” He was a friend behind your back.

And he made the best music, the kind you share, the kind that leaves you smiling, the kind you really do want to keep playing, forever. Rest in peace, venerable professor. Your melodies will not be forgotten.

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This article was originally published in The Detroit Free Press on Sunday, October 13, 2024. In lieu of flowers, the Tini family kindly asks you make donations to Have Faith Haiti or WSU Department of Music (memo line: Dennis Tini Endowed Scholarship in Music)

In Memory of Professor Dennis Tini

In Memory of Professor Dennis Tini

A special message from our founder, Mitch Albom:

With the deepest sadness, I share the news of the passing of our dear friend and mentor, Professor Dennis Tini on October 7. We have lost our Maestro. Dennis was the driving force for the music our kids created at Have Faith Haiti. After a long distinguished career as a musician, university professor, and international artist and composer, Dennis devoted the last seven years of his life to bringing music to orphan children. His dedication, joy, discipline, and relentless belief that people could be better, that students could be better, that human beings could be better, was an inspiration to all of us. My heart breaks at the thought of traveling back-and-forth to Port-au-Prince without him sitting beside us, sharing stories and gushing new ideas for how we could make our children even greater. At 76, he had the energy of three 20-year-olds. His symphony has come to a halt, but the music that he left us will go on forever, in our ears and in our hearts. Godspeed, Dennis, dear friend. Your beat goes in inside all you touched.

If you’ve been directed to this website make an in memoriam gift, please click here to donate. Please add his name in the “In honor / memory of” field under “Dedicate my gift”

Read more about Dennis Toni’s work with the children of Have Faith Haiti in this edition of the “Life at the Orphanage” newsletter.

An Updated Statement On Recent Events in Haiti

An Updated Statement On Recent Events in Haiti

We at Have Faith Haiti want to thank the countless people who rallied, messaged and offered prayers for our children and the volunteers recently trapped without exit in Haiti. 

Thanks to the efforts of Representatives Cory Mills and Lisa McClain, and a brave team of pilots, 10 volunteers were able to evacuate Haiti safely via helicopter in the dark and early hours of Tuesday morning.

Those folks are now safe and home. But we ask that everyone remember the many people still unable to leave Haiti, and the precious children who deserve a better fate than a life so filled with daily worry that they can never go outside the walls. They need and deserve our love and attention. 

We pray that leaders around the world make a safe Haiti a top priority, and we remain deeply grateful for all those who have and continue to help our organization.

With gratitude,

The Have Faith Haiti Team


Related Media

Detroit Free Press: Mitch Albom, 9 others visiting his orphanage rescued from Haiti: ‘We were lucky to get out’

How We Made the Grass “Grow” in Haiti

How We Made the Grass “Grow” in Haiti

We can’t grow grass in Haiti. Heavy tropical rainfall quickly erodes planting, while frequent drought and a lack of irrigation makes it nearly impossible to maintain. So our choices are either a mud field or concrete. That’s how we lived for more than 13 years at the old property. When you’d ask the kids what they want for the new property, they would say grass.

Thanks to a miracle mission to install artificial grass led by SYNLawn Michigan, we’ve given the children a soccer field and yard to run and play on. And for Nadie and Bradley to take their tentative first steps on, to wobble-walk, and now to run with the same delight you remember as a child who knows the feel of summer grass beneath your bare feet.  

What do we mean by miracle mission? It started with a phone call to SYNLawn Michigan and a request for help, and it required more than a year of planning and coordination — with thanks to their partners SYNLawn, T°Cool, BestPLUS Plastic Lumber, New England Turf Store and Nordot

Eight workers from SYNLawn Michigan — thank you Justin Booth, Philip Devane, Juan Guzman, Antonio Montalvo, Jorge Rosales, John Conry, Matt Boudreau and their intrepid project leader Julia Firavich — arrived in Port-au-Prince earlier this year with pallets of materials supplied at cost with labor donated by the company. And they made it all happen in a Herculean effort that took just 5 days, with help from the kids who couldn’t wait for the installation to dry before rolling and somersaulting all over it. 

“It’s hard to put into words…it still feels like a fever dream… Everyone [at Have Faith Haiti] was so welcoming, and so nice. Our team felt so appreciated for the work we did.”

Julia Firavich

This is only the beginning of a special partnership. 

One of our college students was able to intern with SYNLawn Michigan for a few weeks this summer to learn more about the trade, and there’s more vocational opportunities to come. A much-needed but difficult to find case of a nutritional drink (Medika Mamba) also arrived with the crew SYNLawn courtesy of the United Soybean Board — just in time to help Bradley reach his goal weight after years of malnutrition. (The organic backing used in turf installation is made of soybeans.)

With left over materials, we hope to add turf to more areas that need it, as we did with a small area near the nursey so the little ones can enjoy the grass closer. And we’d like to make a basketball court safer by adding special turf tiling on top of the concrete — if you’d like to contribute to our mission to help the “grass” keep growing at Have Faith Haiti and support these efforts, see below. 


Epic 28.5-Mile Swim to Raise Funds for Life-Changing Charities

Epic 28.5-Mile Swim to Raise Funds for Life-Changing Charities

URBANSWIM announces charitable circumnavigation swim of Manhattan with local participant Christopher Harris. This swim will take place in New York on July 6, 2023, at 9:00 am and will support three impactful charities: + POOL, Have Faith Haiti, and Worldwide Orphan Foundation.

Accompanying Chris on this remarkable endeavor are three accomplished swimmers: three-time Olympian Anthony Ervin, triple Guinness World Record Holder Jaimie Monahan as an observer, and + POOL board member Fleur Sohtz.

Originally from Ann Arbor, Michigan, Harris moved to New York City in 1993 to attend Columbia University, where he swam. Chris’ lifelong passion for swimming and his desire to make a positive impact on society has led him to take on this incredible challenge. Guerda Harris (née Marie-José Guerda Edeline), Chris’ mother, was born and raised in Haiti. Orphaned as a teenager, she built a thriving life through the generosity and support of others who provided her with opportunities and safe passage to the United States.

“With this swim, I aim to spotlight these organizations’ causes and honor my family’s connection to Haiti and my adopted home, New York,” said Christopher Harris. “I’ve had the privilege of being surrounded by incredible coaches, teammates, and mentors throughout my life. I hope to demonstrate that success is a collaborative effort, relying on the support and contributions of others. By raising awareness and supporting these charities, we can help transform the lives of those who need it most.”

“I am excited to collaborate with Chris and use our athletic platform for good, raising awareness about clean water access, orphan care, and youth development through this monumental swim,” said Anthony Ervin, Three-Time Olympian. “We believe that united, we can make a difference. Efforts like these will encourage others to take action and engage in supporting causes close to their hearts—whether it be through swimming or other forms of activism—to foster positive change in our world.”

Mitch Albom, best-selling author, and founder of Have Faith Haiti, commented, “Chris’ dedication to making a difference through this incredible challenge is truly inspiring. His commitment to helping others, particularly given his personal connection to Haiti through his mother’s story, showcases the power of perseverance and the human spirit. We are grateful for his support and eagerly anticipate the positive impact this event will have on the lives of many, especially those in Haiti who need our help the most.”

Charitable Partners:
+ POOL is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing free and safe access to New York City’s rivers for swimming, ensuring everyone, regardless of income or background, can enjoy the water.  https://pluspool.org/

Have Faith Haiti, founded by Mitch Albom, is a nonprofit organization offering safety, nourishment, education, and opportunity for Haiti’s impoverished children and orphans, as well as stability for staff and their families in Port-au-Prince. https://havefaithhaiti.org/

Worldwide Orphans Foundation (WWO) aims to educate, heal, and empower children by implementing trauma-informed, play-based programs in vulnerable communities. Currently, WWO operates in Bulgaria, Ethiopia, Haiti, Ukraine, Vietnam, and the Bronx, focusing on children and families experiencing poverty, housing instability, food insecurity, natural disasters, war, and illness. https://www.wwo.org/

“Three charities, three rivers, and a 28.5-mile swim around Manhattan – what an incredible way to honor and support the important things in life. A swim like this takes dedication, commitment, and bravery. We are privileged and delighted to support Chris in his mission. When you are in the water, you become a water ambassador – Chris – we also thank you for that,” concluded Deanne Draeger, Founder, URBANSWIM.

For more information about the event and how to support these charities, please visit CH23Swims.com.