TCNJ

23 FALL/WINTER 2026 BORN IN GHANA, Odonkor immi- grated to Atlanta with his family when he was a year old. It was there that he would eventually become captivated by a unique musical genre: television theme shows. From his perch on the couch, and later sitting at the family desktop searching for lyrics on YouTube, Odonkor spent hours giddily belting out songs from hundreds of shows, from Cheers and Blossom to his beloved Power Rangers. "To this day, I know every word and every melody to every season," he says, adding, "I was just obsessed with any kind of music that was related to storytelling." After his family moved to St. Louis, a music requirement led Odonkor to the middle school band's open house. At first — inspired, naturally, by SpongeBob's Squidward — he consid- ered the clarinet. But his father deemed the choice "uncool," and so he chose the saxophone. Soon, he couldn't imagine his life without it. "I took to it incredibly fast," he says. "The time I spent playing outside with my friends immediately got cut in half, not because my dad or teacher forced me to practice. I just truly wanted to sit in our basement and play the saxophone all day." Odonkor surged ahead of his peers, speeding through his music work- books and ordering off-beat sheet music, including the theme from Family Guy, to play in his downtime. In seventh grade, when he was chosen to perform a concert solo from "High Maintenance" by Gordon Goodwin's Big Phat Band, he rehearsed the short piece over and over again. "There's no musical phrase that is more ingrained in my mind than that," he says. "I think my determination to get it right unlocked something in me. That moment made me realize I was genuinely good, and genuinely driven to be good at it. I felt like a musician." In St. Louis, and later during high school in Lawrenceville, New Jersey, he embraced every musical extra- curricular available, including marching band, orchestra, jazz band, and choir. As if that weren't enough, he was also a member of the varsity tennis, soccer, and track teams. When he arrived at TCNJ in 2018, Odonkor was ready for a dive into his studies. A few months into his freshman year, Odonkor joined the Trentones, TCNJ's competitive a cappella group. He had already started to teach himself how to arrange music, adapting existing pieces to fit new voices and instruments. Being part of the Trentones gave him the perfect opportunity to test out his new passion in real time. His first taste of success came when he arranged Ariana Grande's "thank u, next" to fit the group's vocals. "I remember being so proud of my arrangement," he says. "It sounded like an a cappella song. It sounded like it was supposed to." A SELF PROCLAIMED "purveyor of good vibes," Terence Odonkor has an energy that is contagious.

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