He is considered (along with Bernhard Joachim Hagen) to be one of the last important composers of music for Baroque lute.
He was born in Vienna to Jakob Kohaut, musician to Prince Adam von Schwarzenberg.
[2] In 1761, he published his first work, a divertimento for lute, two violins and basso continuo, in Leipzig.
[4] He dedicated two cantatas to celebrate Emperor Joseph's (at that time an Archduke of Austria) visit to the Melk Abbey.
[6] The manuscripts of his first concerto and some of his trio sonatas came to the possession of the Belgian musicologist François-Joseph Fétis.