Carla Davis Cash

Carla Davis Cash is Associate Professor of Piano and Piano Pedagogy at Texas Tech University where she serves as chair of the keyboard division, teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in pedagogy and applied music, and coordinates the undergraduate class piano program.

For over a decade, Dr. Cash's body of research has centered on the processes by which novice and expert musicians learn and refine motor skills. Her work has been presented at state, national, and international conferences of music performance, education, and psychology, and her articles can be found in leading journals of music education and music psychology.

In recognition of her contributions to the field of music learning, Dr. Cash received the Outstanding Research Award from the National Conference on Keyboard Pedagogy (NCKP) in 2007 and 2009, and in 2015 was awarded the Texas Tech University Chancellor's Council Distinguished Research Award. Most recently, Dr. Cash and her interdisciplinary team of colleagues in music, cognitive psychology, and mechanical engineering were one of four research groups selected to receive the inaugural 2016 TTU Seed Grant for Interdisciplinary Research ($150,000). They are currently using fMRI technology to investigate the neural basis of skill learning in music. 

Additional professional activities include serving as chair of the National Conference on Keyboard Pedagogy (NCKP) research committee and the collegiate keyboard committee of the Texas Music Educators Association (TMEA), as well as being a member of research and editorial committees for TMEA. Dr. Cash is an active pianist, regularly performing as a soloist and collaborator. She also maintains a small private teaching studio in Lubbock, TX.

A native of Miami, Florida, she earned both a B.M. in Keyboard Performance and an M.M. in Keyboard Performance and Pedagogy from the University of Miami, and holds a Ph.D. in Music and Human Learning from The University of Texas at Austin.