Allegra E. Klein is an international development specialist and professional musician currently living in Baghdad, Iraq. Originally from New York City, she received her Bachelor of Arts from Harvard University and subsequently became an arts administrator, working for cultural institutions such as Carnegie Hall, Sony Music, the Marlboro Music Festival, and New York Youth Symphony.

Shortly after September 11, 2001, Ms. Klein founded Musicians For Harmony, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization dedicated to fostering and advancing peace and dialogue among individuals of different cultures, ethnicities, and religions through musical performances, educational activities, and cross-cultural exchange. M4H’s annual fall concerts have been called “sounds rising above prejudice” (New York Times) and “an international peace-keeping force” (The New York Daily News), and The New Yorker wrote in April 2010: “The concert event that began as an act of healing in the wake of 9/11 has endured as an annual testament to peace.”

Ms. Klein’s work with M4H led to her first visit to Iraq in 2003, to bring funds raised by that year’s fall concert, as well as musical instruments and supplies, to the Iraqi National Symphony Orchestra.  She returned in 2007 to teach for the U.S. State Department-sponsored Iraqi Unity Performing Arts Academy, and again in 2009 to co-found the first National Youth Orchestra of Iraq with 17-year-old pianist Zuhal Sultan. Her articles about these trips were published in Strings and Symphony magazines, and her cross-cultural work has also been profiled in the New York Sun, the New York Daily News and Chamber Music Magazine. 

A strong advocate for cultural diplomacy, Ms. Klein addressed a conference at the United Nations in 2006 about the Role of the Arts in Educating Girls in Developing Countries, and was invited back the following spring for a roundtable discussion on how the arts can bridge gaps between cultures. In 2007, she enrolled in the Masters program at NYU’s Center for Global Affairs, and in 2008, she was asked to write an article for the Cultural Diplomacy Institute which was published online in their Cultural Diplomacy News. She was subsequently invited to participate in conferences on Music and Cultural Diplomacy at Northeastern University in Boston and on Peacebuilding and Conflict Resolution for 3D Security in Washington, D.C. 

In October 2009, Ms. Klein re-located to Baghdad, where she was engaged by 4points Company – an Iraqi woman-owned firm – as Director of Business Development. Projects she has developed include capacity building and training for Iraq’s civil society organizations, small businesses, women’s and children’s NGOs, agricultural institutions, government employees, and cultural entities. In May 2010, Allegra Klein became the first American woman ever to join as a contracted member of INSO, and she is the first foreign member to join since 2003.