During his outstanding career, Tom Rossing studied the acoustics of every major class of musical instruments. During my first trip to the United States, to participate as a student in the ASA Columbus 1999 meeting, I was given the opportunity to measure my free-reed pipe in Tom Rossing’s lab using his novel laser vibrometer. Like many others, he soon also became my role model for his broad knowledge, scientific depth, and his sheer pragmatism (that enabled him to write so many groundbreaking books). In particular, our generation greatly benefits from his gift for accurately describing the key fundamentals of complex acoustic phenomena based on a traditional understanding of physics and the use of groundbreaking measurement techniques such as laser vibrometry and TV holography. Tom Rossing never separated the hard work required to understand the underlying mechanisms of musical instruments from the cultural importance and delight of listening to and performing music. And so, he reminded everybody, right af...