Freshman popular music performance student Savannah Tweedt has always been inspired by other women in the drumming world, but her love for drums was almost entirely happenstance.

Tweedt’s emphasis in drums can originally be traced back to a single moment when she was 4 years old in her aunt and uncle’s house. Seeking her grandparents during a game of hide and seek, Tweedt discovered her aunt and uncle’s old drum kit in the attic and promptly lost their game after trying her luck with the set. 

Over the years, the drummer has amassed accolades and earned the admiration of her colleagues, including Natasha Pasternak, adjunct professor of songwriting at Thornton School of Music and Tweedt’s former conservatory director at the Orange County School of the Arts.

“From day one, she’s been an absolute professional and a top-notch musician, additionally just a wonderful person. She is focused, flexible and kind. To me, that is what makes a successful musician,” Pasternak wrote. “It’s not just talent; there’s so much more to being successful in music. Savannah has always had all the elements to be extremely successful. It’s been a joy to watch her excel.”

Beyond motivation, the drummer’s talent and passion have undeniably fueled her musical journey. Tweedt is constantly working to expand her musicality via music production, audio engineering, picking up other instruments and being a reluctant vocalist. Whether it’s supporting other artists with her drumming, writing her own music or working as an audio engineer, Tweedt is never far from music.

“Savannah is really self-motivated and has a clear idea of what she wants to do. She wants to play drums and record,” wrote David Irish, Tweedt’s collaborator and fellow engineer at Pot of Gold Recording in Orange County. “She took the initiative to start coming to the studio to learn how to record. Within months, she was recording her own projects.” 

Tweedt’s ambition and collaborative spirit have brought her talents into the lives of others through countless projects and outreach. Both in and out of the University, Tweedt’s talents can be found in numerous musical groups and in the production of fellow artists’ projects.

Besides being an integral part of several diverse projects — including indie rock group ti85, the multi-generational ska collective Half Past Two and USC-based group Small Talk — Tweedt is also constantly looking for opportunities to champion other women in percussion.

“She is always the first to build up the people around her and create such an overwhelming sense of community, and this really shows in her playing,” wrote Fenella Nishigawara, a current collaborator of Tweedt’s in a new group called YAWN. “She is open to new ideas, playing with new people, yet also very intentional about her own tastes in things and musical decisions on her project.”

Drumming and percussion as a whole have largely been characterized as a masculine discipline, resulting in fewer and fewer women feeling comfortable to enter the space, including Tweedt.

“I would say it’s been very challenging having to deal with little microaggressions here and there, and sometimes people stereotype without realizing it,” Tweedt said. “A lot of times, when I go into venues or even recording sessions, people sort of assume that I’m the singer or that I’m just the girlfriend of one of the band members.”

However, Tweedt sees the rigidity of gendered stereotypes within the music industry as a call to action for her and other passionate women in music to uplift each other rather than let outdated biases silence their voices. 

“Overall, it’s sort of motivating for me because I want to find a certain level of success that proves that it’s possible to do that, so that hopefully, at a certain point in time, people will begin to be able to recognize that women are obviously capable of being incredible drummers as well and are doing more than what’s expected of them within the music industry,” Tweedt said.

Seeing artists like Karah James of Valley perform fanned the spark Tweedt discovered in that dusty drum kit, leading her down a path toward becoming a drummer.

“Watching [James] perform, I sort of saw myself playing, and realized that it was possible for me to pursue a career in music and hopefully someday get to play on stages like that,” Tweedt said. “It never really occurred to me that it was an option to do that. I’d never really seen other girl drummers, and felt super drawn to that.”

Pasternak witnessed Tweedt’s constant support of other women in music during her tenure at OSCA, saying that the drummer has always been “generous with her time and talents.”

“Using her position as a woman in music has been awesome to watch, to promote girls and women in drumming, producing and more, just shows how important she is in the legacy and impact she is leaving behind her as she blazes her pathway,” Pasternak wrote.

The drummer took home first prize in the 2020 Hit Like A Girl online drumming contest, but her biggest takeaway from the experience was from interacting with other women equally passionate about percussion.

“I hope to be able to create opportunities like [Hit Like A Girl] as I go deeper into the industry, to give back to other young women like myself, so that it’s not as difficult and as jarring so that we can really start to make a positive change in the music industry,” Tweedt said. “More voices of women need to be heard, and I think that it’s very important to make that happen.”