WFIU’s weekly vocal jazz program Afterglow is getting a new host. Richard Roland makes his Afterglow debut on Friday, April 4.

Richard is a native New Yorker, a multi-generation performer, a third-generation Broadway veteran. As an actor, he has appeared on Broadway, off-Broadway, national tours, regional theatres, television, and radio. As a director, he has worked across the US, in Denmark, and London.

His parents and grandfather worked on Broadway during its Golden Age, so he was raised on the American Songbook, which is featured on Afterglow. As a singer, Richard formed a jazz vocal quartet for which he also arranged, and over twelve years played several jazz clubs in New York and throughout the country (as well as Carnegie Hall) and recorded two albums. As a jazz soloist, he created and performed songs inspired by the collaborations of Mel Tormé and Marty Paich.

Outside of his hosting duties at WFIU, he teaches musical theatre at Indiana University and returns this fall as the department’s Director of the BFA in Musical Theatre. When he’s not at WFIU or in the theatre building, he can usually be found in his kitchen cooking gourmet meals.

Hosting Afterglow is a bit of a dream come true and brings his love of the American Songbook full circle since his first shows for radio in college were Jazz Vocalists and Broadway Musicals. Here, he combines the two into one, emphasizing that much of the popular music of the 1930s, ’40s, and ’50s came from jazz interpretations of musical theatre songs.

This month’s Afterglow episodes will feature music about spring, the early songs of Rodgers and Hart, a celebration of Lena Horne, and a look at the compositions of Mel Tormé.

Afterglow airs Fridays at 8 p.m. on WFIU and Sundays at 7 p.m. on WFIU2.