Cassie Shankman

Composer + DJ, Sounds by Cassandra

Cassie Shankman, owner 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 and recorded 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, she’s DJ’d for clients such as US Women’s Volleyball Team, The Grammys/Recording Academy, Bumble, Lululemon 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 (DJ Windows98), Midland, and Goldfish.

Cassie’s current compositional focus is designing and composing Biomedical Music™ integrated with biomedical devices for rehabilitation.

As a proponent for music education, Cassie the co-founder of Picardy, an interactive platform for developing music theory and musicianship skills for all. She was also the Program & Media Manager/Lead Producer for the non-profit Golden Hornet, a music composition laboratory co-founded by composer Graham Reynolds. She helped produced events such as the young composers’ concerts to enrich people’s lives in our community through music. Recently, Cassie was an on-screen live performance consultant and teacher for two seasons of Facebook’s show “SKAM – Austin.”

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. She’s talked with multiple groups of students about music career opportunities with organizations such as the Mother Falcon Music Lab, the Grammy Foundation, University of Texas Performing Arts student organization, and Magellan International School. Passion for one’s community is the vehicle to bring joy to its residents.