With support from the Royal Philharmonic Society and Australian Music Foundation, she continued her studies as an organist in Paris with Marie-Claire Alain.

She was a prize winner in the 2000 Australian Young Performers' Competition and made her European debut as an organist at London's Westminster Cathedral the next year.

She graduated from the Royal Academy of Music in 2009, with distinction, and was appointed RAM Manson Fellow in Composition.

In 2012, after an extensive search process, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra appointed Cottis its assistant conductor, and she held this post for 2 years.

In 2014, Cottis was appointed principal conductor of the Glasgow New Music Expedition, where she curated notable projects alongside visual artists and filmmakers.

[4] Cottis conducted her first commercial recording, Gallipoli Symphony,[11] in 2015, a tri-nation project of cultural diplomacy between Australia, New Zealand and Turkey, for ABC Classics.