The Hermitage Artist Retreat today announced a new program, “Songwriting for Character” on the Hermitage Beach, featuring Grammy Award-nominated artist, musical theater composer, and returning Hermitage Fellow Rona Siddiqui. On Thursday, May 28 at 6:30pm, Siddiqui returns to the Hermitage Beach to offer insight into her approach to songwriting in this sunset program. Having won some of musical theater’s most prestigious awards as a songwriter, including the Kleban Prize for lyric writing and a Jonathan Larson grant, Siddiqui has also collaborated on notable Broadway and Off-Broadway musicals as a music director and orchestrator – including the Pulitzer Prize-winning A Strange Loop, written by Hermitage Fellow Michael R. Jackson. Siddiqui has previously shared her work at a Hermitage Beach program in 2020, at the 2024 Hermitage Artful Lobster, and as Music Director for the Hermitage’s Twentieth Anniversary Celebration at the Van Wezel, which featured Hermitage Artistic Director Andy Sandberg and multiple Tony Award-nominated Broadway talents. For her upcoming program on May 28, Siddiqui will offer a look into her songwriting techniques and share some of her original work as the sun sets into the Gulf on Manasota Key.  For more information, visit HermitageArtistRetreat.org.