Cassandra Shankman

Cassandra Shankman, aka DJ Cassandra, is a DJ, composer, pianist, and educator. She’s brought her unique sound to global events for Formula 1, Gucci, Goldman Sachs, NASCAR, Teen Vogue, Reddit, Google, just to name a few. DJ Cassandra was a ACL 2024 official artist (both weekends), and has opened / closed for Willie Nelson, Chromeo, Teddy Swims, Classixx, Portugal The Man, Trixie Mattel, Jerry Seinfeld, Maren Morris, Orville Peck, Doechii/MissMilan, Daughtry, Matoma, LP Giobbi, RUN DMC, Win Butler (DJ Windows98)/Arcade Fire, Kishi Bashi, Charley Crockett, and many more. She curated playlists for clients from Lululemon to Hulu and Topo Chico, and is W Austin's newest music curator. As a pianist, she’s played and recorded with musicians from DEVO’s frontman Mark Mothersbaugh to jazz trombonist Wycliffe Gordon at Lincoln Center. As a composer she has been recognized for orchestration and composition work in award-winning films featuring directors and actors such as Terrence Malick, Martin Sheen, and Natalie Portman. She also composes music for Biomedical Music Solutions, Inc., music to help patients with neurological conditions learn how or regain the ability to walk. The Biomedical Music (TM) she has composed has produced life-changing results for over 3 million global users and counting. Cassandra has spoken at the Dell World Technologies Conference in 2024 on this subject, and as an official SXSW panelist in 2022 with The Recording Academy’s MusiCares, Headspace and Berklee College of Music on music as a tool for healing. She also spoke in 2017 about her work with Biomedical Music Solutions and was honored as a SXSW 2018 Interactive Innovation Award finalist. She was elected as one of the youngest Governors on the Texas Chapter of The Recording Academy board. As a proponent for music education, she co-founded the web-app Picardy focused on helping anyone develop music theory skills. She was also a music performance coach for TV shows like “Walker Texas Ranger.”