Rona Siddiqui

Position
Associate Professor

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Rona Siddiqui is a composer and lyricist based in New York City. She is a recipient of the Jonathan Larson Grant and Billie Burke Ziegfeld Award and was named one of Broadway Women's Fund's "Women to Watch." Her show Salaam Medina: Tales of a Halfghan, an autobiographical comedy about growing up bi-ethnic in America, has had a concert at 54 Below and a reading at Playwrights Horizons (directed by Raja Feather Kelly). Her other musicals include One Good Day, Hip Hop Cinderella, and The Tin.

Siddiqui is the recipient of the ASCAP Foundation Harold Adamson Lyric Award, the ASCAP Foundation Mary Rodgers/Lorenz Hart Award, and the ASCAP Foundation/Max Dreyfus Scholarship. She has written pieces for Wicked's 16th anniversary commemoration, Flying Free; 24 Hour Musicals; Prospect Theater Company; and the Civilians. Arena Stage commissioned Siddiqui to write a piece for their 2021 Arena Riffs series. She has performed concerts of her work at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Green Room 42, and 54 Below. She is currently part of Musical Theatre Factory's Makers Residency and Ars Nova's Vision Residency.

Siddiqui is music director for the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award–winning Broadway musical, A Strange Loop. She received a Grammy nomination for her work on A Strange Loop (Original Broadway Recording) album. She has orchestrated for Broadway Records, Broadway Backwards, the National Alliance for Musical Theatre, and Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera, and is on faculty at Berklee NYC's writing and design for musical theater graduate program.

Career Highlights
  • Music Director for the Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize winner, A Strange Loop
  • Performed on NPR's Tiny Desk series, The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, Late Night with Seth Myers, and Sherri
  • Orchestrator for Broadway Records, Broadway Backwards, the National Alliance for Musical Theater, and Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera
  • One Good Day named one of the Best New Musicals of 2014 by the Festival of New American Musicals
  • Named one of Broadway Women's Fund's "Women to Watch" in 2021
Awards
  • Grammy Nominee for A Strange Loop (Original Cast Recording)
  • Recipient of the ASCAP Foundation Harold Adamson Lyric Award
  • Recipient of the ASCAP Foundation Mary Rodgers/Lorenz Hart Award
  • Recipient of the 2020 Obie Award for Special Citations for A Strange Loop
  • Recipient of the 2020 Jonathan Larson Grant from the American Theatre Wing
  • Recipient of the 2019 Billie Burke Ziegfeld Award
Education
  • M.A., NYU Tisch School of the Arts, musical theatre writing
  • B.A., University of California, Los Angeles, music composition
In Their Own Words

"Students should push their musical boundaries by seeking new styles and genres as compositional inspiration. The musical fire is ignited when our internal landscape is in honest conversation with our external surroundings."