For his compositions Mahnkopf won numerous international prizes, among them the Gaudeamus International Composers Award in 1990, the composition prize of the city Stuttgart and the Composers Award of the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation in 1998.
Since 2005 Claus-Steffen Mahnkopf has taught composition at the University of Music and Theatre "Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy" in Leipzig.
Among musicians who regularly perform his works are oboist Peter Veale, Sophie-Mayuko Vetter, Carin Levine, James Avery and Frank Cox.
[3] Mahnkopf has worked as music theory teacher and as consultant for opera houses and he has published many essays in musicological magazines.
In 1999, Mahnkopf married professor doctor Francesca Yardenit Albertini (1974–2011), a Jewish philosopher of religion.