Jake Hood

Music educator and conductor Jacob Hood is the Director of Orchestras at Alpharetta High School in Fulton County, Georgia. From 2017 to 2022, Mr. Hood was Co-Director of Orchestras at Collins Hill High School in Suwanee, GA. The CHHS orchestras consistently received superior ratings at adjudications, performed at the Georgia Music Educators conference, and their public performances have become a staple of the Lawrenceville and Suwanee communities.

Mr. Hood has interests in technology and in making the orchestra classroom more efficient for student learning. He is a Level 1 and Level 2 Google Certified Educator. In collaboration with his Collins Hill colleague, Rosie Riquelme-Antunez, he presented their joint research, “Google Apps and the Performing Ensemble,” at the 2020 GMEA conference.

As a cellist, he performed dozens of concerts and recitals as a soloist and chamber musician, including more than 50 premiere performances in UGA's Dancz Center for New Music. He currently performs with the Georgia Philharmonic Orchestra and has joined the Georgia Philharmonic board as head of the Artistic Committee.

Mr. Hood earned a Bachelor of Music Education degree in 2016 from the University of Georgia, where he studied cello with David Starkweather. In 2022 he completed a Master of Music degree in orchestral conducting at Messiah University, where he studied conducting with Timothy Dixon.

Mr. Hood is married to another cellist, Justin Dougherty, and lives with his family in Suwanee, GA. He believes garlic bread should be a food group, adores/requires cold brew coffee, and loves attempting long walks on the beach with his fourteen-pound cat, Lord Tubbington, and his Australian Shepherd puppy, Sir Otis.