Cassandra Shankman

Cassandra Shankman, aka DJ Cassandra, is a DJ, composer/producer, pianist, educator, and all-around creative, growing up between Texas and London. She’s brought her unique sound to global events for Formula 1, Sports Illustrated, Gucci, Goldman Sachs, NASCAR, Teen Vogue, Reddit, Country Music Television Awards, Google, Bumble, Apple TV+, SXSW, Adidas, US Women's Volleyball Team, Kendra Scott, Dell, NBC, Virgin, The Recording Academy, Tito’s Vodka, Franklin’s BBQ, (and that’s just to name a few). DJ Cassandra was a ACL 2024 official artist (both weekends), and has opened and closed for Willie Nelson, Chromeo, Teddy Swims, Classixx, Portugal The Man, Trixie Mattel, Jerry Seinfeld, Blake Shelton, Doechii/MissMilan, Daughtry, Matoma, Amtrak, LP Giobbi, RUN DMC, Win Butler (DJ Windows98) of Arcade Fire, Kishi Bashi, Sol Rising, Midland, Charley Crockett, and many more. She curated playlists for clients from Athleta to Lululemon to Hulu to Topo Chico and Tito’s Vodka. As a pianist, she’s played and recorded with musicians from indie-rock artist Ben Kweller to DEVO’s frontman Mark Mothersbaugh and jazz trombonist Wycliffe Gordon at Lincoln Center.

As a composer she has been recognized for orchestration, composition, and music preparation 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 (™) she has composed is advancing the applications of music-assisted rehabilitation and 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. Her music was featured in a research study published in the August 2020 edition of “Frontiers in Neurology – Movement Disorders.”

She was recently elected as one of the youngest Governors on the Texas Chapter of The Recording Academy board. She is also W Austin's newest music curator, under LP Giobbi's sonic vision. As a proponent for music education, Cassie has been an active member with the Recording Academy’s Texas Chapter Education committee for 6 years and counting, and is also a 4-time featured speaker for Grammy Career Day. She recently joined the Songwriter and Composer committee in 2023 as well. In addition, she co-founded the web-app Picardy focused on helping anyone develop music theory and musicianship skills. She was a multi-year mentor for The University of Texas at Austin’s Bridging Disciplines Program, and has been a featured volunteer speaker at multiple universities such as Claflin University’s Music Department to SMU’s Meadows School for the Arts Music Pedagogy and Theory Department to The University of Texas at Austin’s Department of Arts and Entertainment Technologies Gender, Race, and Technologies class.

As an educator and consultant, Cassie works on various TV/Film productions as a music performance coach. Her work has been featured in shows such as Walker Texas Ranger (Season 2 and 3), and Facebook’s SKAM - Austin.

In 2020 Cassie was named Austin’s 40-Under-40 Finalist in Arts and Entertainment. She is a graduate from The University of Texas with a degree in music composition and a secondary focus in film studies. Cassie is also a mental health advocate.