Jake Hood

Music educator and conductor Jake Hood is the Director of Orchestras at Alpharetta High School in Fulton County, Georgia. Since joining the performing arts department at Alpharetta four years ago, Mr. Hood was named as the 2026-2027 Alpharetta High School Teacher of the Year and has been commended for his work building a culture of camaraderie and community within the orchestra program.  

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 Association conference, and their public performances have become a staple of the Lawrenceville and Suwanee communities. 

While an undergraduate student at the University of Georgia, Mr. Hood was a cellist in the University Symphony Orchestra. 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. In addition to his instrumental performance, he sang as a member of three different choral organizations at UGA and taught for four years in the UGA String Project in the Athens-Clarke County school system.  

He performs in the cello section and is on the Board of Directors of the Georgia Philharmonic, and teaches a small private studio of young cellists in his home studio. He is sought after as a large ensemble adjudicator, and has guest conducted ensembles throughout the east coast.  

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 his Master of Music degree in orchestral conducting at Messiah University, where he studied conducting with Timothy Dixon. 

Mr. Hood is married 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, simultaneously.