About
15 years performing room visits and theme music programs at nursing homes and hospitals. In addition to leading his group, "TKQ", (Terry Koger Quartet, Quintet), he has been featured as a sideman with many area musicians.
Terry Koger, a native of Trenton, New Jersey began his musical training at an early age on piano and later on alto saxophone. His first jazz instructor, Thomas Grice, was instrumental in his early training, teaching Terry about improvisation and the art of teaching music.
Terry graduated from Morgan State University majoring in Music Education. In addition to his love of music and especially jazz, he developed an interest in black music research, studying the history of black music and the contributions of black Americans to the vast field of music. He was mentored by significant scholars in the field such as Dr. Samuel A. Floyd, Dr. Eileen Southern, and Dr. Dominique Rene' deLerma. He has published works in the Black Music Research Journal and the Black Perspective in Music.
Since that time, Terry has performed musical therapy in the Baltimore/Washington Metropolitan area for the "Young at Heart". He has played for thousands of elders for the past
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He has worked with Vattel Cherry's Soulstation, The Eubie Blake Big Band, The Deep Water Jazz Ensemble and the Benny Russell Big Band.
Some of the venues Terry has played include the Anacostia Arts Center, An Die Musik, Alice's Jazz and Cultural Center, The Arts Barn, Caton Castle, The Eubie Blake Center, Germano's and Keystone Korner Baltimore.
Terry has been influenced by many saxophonists including Cannonball Adderley, John Coltrane, Johnny Griffin, Rashaan Roland Kirk, Jackie McLean, Oliver Nelson, Charlie Parker and Sonny Stitt. He continues to hone his craft in jazz on piano, vocals and improvisation by attending the Vince Evans Jazz Workshop following the dynamic teachings of jazz pianist Barry Harris.