German composer of operas, ballets and orchestral works, and Kapellmeister (chief orchestra director), best known for his composition, Town Piper Music, which was performed worldwide in the 1950s.
After studying music in Breslau he worked as a répétiteur and music director in Breslau, Aachen and Weimar and after a concert tour through the Soviet Union he finally moved to Berlin in 1932. Four years later he had his first success with his ballet Die Gaunerstreiche der Courasche. The work was performed during the ballet festival which was part of the supporting programme of the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin. But already shortly after this success the Nazis denounced him with the expression “Music Bolshevism” and he was excluded from the Reichsmusikkammer. With this exclusion Mohaupt could not work in Germany anymore and so emigrated to the US in 1939 and settled in New York.
In the US, Mohaupt did not compose musical theatre anymore because symphonic music sold much better. During his time in the United States he mainly composed for film, television and radio. His works were performed by renowned orchestras like the New York Philharmonic and the NBC Symphony Orchestra. He also composed operas at that time but mainly for German opera houses, among them were Max und Moritz (1949).
In 1955 Mohaupt moved back to Europe and lived in Austria until his death on 3 July 1957, aged 52. He died in Reichenau an der Rax before the world premiere of his last opera, Der grüne Kakadu (with words by Arthur Schnitzler).
Link to Wikipedia biography