The following year he won a place as a soloist with the Brazilian Symphony Orchestra and in 1971 at age 12 was awarded first prize in the Lorenzo Fernández piano competition.
[3][4] He went on to receive a scholarship from the Brazilian government when he was 18 which allowed him to study in New York City as a private pupil of Adele Marcus.
[5] In 1980 at the Panorama da Música Brasileira Atual, Cocarelli premiered Ronaldo Miranda's atonal solo piano work Prólogo, Discurso e Reflexão which had been written expressly for him.
[7] When asked in 1997 how a musician from Brazil can make himself known in Europe, Cocarelli replied: "The only solution is the one that I adopted: to become known by winning major international competitions.
A review of the recital in the New York Times noted: "Along with generally excellent control and fastidiously even passage work came thoughtful rubatos and occasionally an almost brooding intensity.