In June 2020, Orenda Records released Cathlene Pineda’s third album of original music, “Rainbow Baby,” to critical acclaim. Dave Cantor of Downbeat writes “The majority of Rainbow Baby comes off as a blue exploration of Pineda’s psyche; the music’s no less gorgeous or entrancing. The emotional backing of California pianist Cathlene Pineda’s Rainbow Baby is startling…the courage to write music about such a personal experience should be recognized.” Jonathan Widran of JW Vibe explains, “You don’t really have to know Pineda’s intense backstories – and how she went from loss to love - to appreciate the unique ensemble energy she creates with her gifted ensemble.” “Rainbow Baby”  is music that reflects on four years of motherhood, pregnancy, loss, and, ultimately and most powerfully, love.

In January 2016, Orenda Records released Cathlene  Pineda's second album of original music, "Passing: A California Suite." "Airy, elegant and haunting" (Cesareo Garasa, The Californian),  this album was originally a piece commissioned by the Los Angeles Jazz Society and premiered at the Angel City Jazz Festival at the REDCAT theater. It is a suite of music based off of the work of Los Angeles' first Poet-Laureate, Eloise Klein-Healy, and incorporates the poetry throughout the piece, with an “open atmosphere that hints at the complex beauty of the city" (Lee Epstein, freejazzblog.org). 

In 2014,  Orenda Records released Pineda's first album of original compositions, "A Week's Time." Grammy award-winning artist Dave Douglas, creator of Greenleaf Music, calls the album  "a personal statement, the originality and good taste of her composing reflect that...Pineda is a great artist who you will want to listen for and get to know," and the Los Angeles Times calls the album "a graceful pleasure."  This collection of pieces is a reflection on the power of the ephemeral, developed when what was believed to be her father's last hours turned into a week of recovery and rebirth.

Highlights of her recent projects include an ongoing collaboration with the Big Show Dance Company (premiered in October 2015 and again in February 2017) to incorporate original compositions with recorded memories, a commission by the Oakwood school for a collaborative dance and choral piece, and a commission  to compose a piece for the Jane Goodall Institute,  as well as her featured compositions in the critically-acclaimed film, "Jason Nash is Married," produced by Comedy Central Studios. She is currently working on a film score for the upcoming short, “Petomane,” a true story of a circus performer in the Belle Epoque period, manifested through puppetry and stop animation.

As a performer, Pineda has worked with an extensive list of notable musicians, including: Charlie Haden, Bobby Bradford, Ab Baars (From the ICP), Art Lande, Dave Douglas, Stephanie Richards, Phillip Greenlief, Wadada Leo Smith, Albert “Tootie” Heath, Kris Tiner, Vinny Golia, Mark Miller, and Joe LaBarbara.

 As a composer and performer, Pineda has worked with dance companies, as well as puppeteers, animators, and visual artists, Recently she performed and composed a large-scale work with multi-reedist Vinny Golia in collaboration with the dance, animation, and music departments at the Jakarta Institute of the Arts as part of the festival of Indonesian Music and Dance in Jakarta, Indonesia. 

Other recent performances have included the Egyptian Theater in collaboration with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Weimar Film Festival, the Fillmore Jazz Festival in San Francisco, the Conrad Prebys Music Hall at UC San Diego along with ARMS (a collaboration with Stephanie Richards and Vicki Ray),  The Ford Theater in Los Angeles as part of the Angel City Jazz Festival, The Panorama Music Summit in Bakersfield, CA, REDCAT Theatre at Disney Hall in collaboration with animator Maureen Selwood, The Beatniq Jazz Club in Calgary as a TD Bank sponsored artist, the Merce Cunningham Dance Studio in New York City in collaboration with Catherine Gallant Dance, The Janet Wallace Concert Hall At Macalester College, and the Skirball Center.

Pineda has an MFA in jazz piano and composition from the California Institute of the Arts and a Bachelor of Music with honors in piano performance from the Mannes College of Music.  She is a music professor at Glendale Community College and CalState Northridge, and runs a private studio of piano and composition students. She currently lives in Los Angeles with her husband, their dog, and their two children.