Cassie Shankman

DJ Cassandra, (Cassie Shankman) founder of Sounds by Cassandra, is an Austin-based DJ (@djcassandra_), curator, composer, producer, educator, and creative. She grew up between Texas and London, and is a big believer in community and collaboration.

As a composer and orchestrator, she has been recognized for her work with film, visual artists, chamber groups, wind ensembles, apps, musicals, and music therapy technology.

As a performer, she’s played with musicians such as jazz trombonist Wycliffe Gordon at Lincoln Center, DEVO’s frontman Mark Mothersbaugh to indie-rock artist Ben Kweller.

As a DJ and curator, she’s worked with clients such as Nascar, US Women’s Volleyball Team, The Grammys/Recording Academy, Bumble, Hulu, Google and Teen Vogue. The weddings she's DJ'd have been featured in Junebug Weddings and New York Magazine’s The Cut. DJ Cassandra has opened for Angel and Dren, Win Butler of Arcade Fire (DJ Windows98), Midland, and Goldfish.

Cassie’s compositional focus is designing and composing Biomedical Music™ integrated with biomedical devices for rehabilitation. These compositions are created utilizing brain-based movement technology to help people walk again. She spoke at SXSW 2017 on a panel discussing this project: "Movement Tracks: Where Biotech and Music Converge," and was a finalist in the 2018 SXSW Interactive Innovation Awards.

As a proponent for music education, Cassie the co-founder of Picardy, an interactive platform for developing music theory and musicianship skills. Recently, Cassie is working as an on-screen live performance consultant and teacher for Season 2 of Walker Texas Ranger.

She is a graduate from The University of Texas with a degree in music composition and a secondary focus in film studies. Cassie is a music and mental health advocate.