As his sabbatical project, Alan Hood, Associate Professor of Trumpet at the Lamont School of Music (University of Denver, CO), and host of the Rafael Méndez Brass Institute, has been touring various trumpet studios at different universities throughout the country. He has observed studio lessons in both classical and jazz idioms, attended master classes, rehearsals, and recitals, and collected syllabi, handouts, and any other information pertinent to the university studio environment. He plans to apply what he has learned to his own studio and teaching at the University of Denver.Some schools on Hood's itinerary include Ithaca College, Syracuse University, University of North Texas, University of Texas-Austin, Arizona State University, University of Southern California, California State-Northridge, Roosevelt University, Indiana University, University of Illinois-Champaign/Urbana, University of Northern Colorado and University of Washington (Seattle).

On March 17 & 18, 2009, Alan visited Ithaca College where he observed trumpet lessons given (and administered) by both Dr. Kim Dunnick (Professor & Chair of the Performing Studies Department) and Dr. John Charles Thomas (sabbatical leave replacement for Frank Gabriel Campos).

Pictured in the accompanying photo are (L to R):
Frank Gabriel Campos, Kim Dunnick, Alan Hood and John Charles Thomas