FirstWood,ThenSound
There is a version of a musician's life that begins beneath stage lights, with a name already printed on a poster. Susanna Roncallo's story begins earlier and closer to the ground: with a guitar, the streets of Genoa, and the discovery that music could travel without asking permission.
Beginning in Genoa
She began playing at eleven under the guidance of guitarist Fabio Veneziani. Before theatres and festivals, the old centre of Genoa became her first public room — its narrow streets, stone walls, sudden openings and passing strangers gave her an education no conservatory could quite reproduce.
It was there that her identity as a busker took shape. A period description from BalconyTV called her a notable local fingerstyle talent, emphasizing that her solo street performances were where her particular magic could be most clearly heard.
The Unfolding Practice
Teaching and Mentorship
Teaching runs alongside her performing life. The City of Genoa's 2025 profile reports that Roncallo combines her artistic career with sustained music teaching, collaborating with schools and associations across Liguria.
There is a quiet coherence here: the child who began at eleven, the busker who learned from passing strangers, and the teacher helping another person find a relationship with an instrument belong to the same continuum.
An Artistic Identity
The guitar, for Susanna, is wood and then sound. Solitude, then encounter.
Her official and third-party descriptions converge on a coherent artistic identity: acoustic guitar as material object and storytelling instrument, careful attention to silence, intimacy over display, and a strong sensory relationship to landscape, weather, movement, and human encounter.
