Parallel to his piano studies, he also received degrees in Engineering and Violin from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, and started his professional career as a violinist of the Rio de Janeiro Opera House Orchestra.
Soon he decided to devote more time to playing piano and continued his studies with Jacques Klein, Bruno Seidlhofer and Dieter Weber.
In 1972 he won the first prize of the Ferruccio Busoni International Piano Competition.
[3][4] Arnaldo Cohen served as a professor of piano at the Royal Academy of Music in London and currently is a professor at the Jacobs School of Music in Indiana (USA).
[5][6] In October 2012 Cohen was appointed as the Artistic Director of Portland Piano International, the presenter of one of the leading solo piano recital series in North America.