Peter Klein

Born just after World War II to Jewish Hungarian parents and raised in Communist Romania, Peter Klein emigrated to Israel when he was 18 years old, before setting sail for New York City at 23. There, he attended night school and worked a series of survival jobs before his gift for languages - and a chance encounter in a Times Square hotel - landed him an opportunity to work for Sol Hurok, the legendary impresario. Soon, he was traveling to South America and all through the United States as tour manager for virtuoso guitarist Andres Segovia, Rudolf Nureyev and for other Hurok attractions, handling sold-out houses, organizing a summer festival in Westchester and even a concert at the White House. In 1973, Klein launched Living Arts, and turned his attention to exporting American performing arts. In 1977, he brought American Ballet Theatre with Baryshnikov to the Italian stage for the first time. Combining his passion for America with his European sensibility, Klein acted as a cultural spokesman and ambassador, bridging divides and opening European minds to new and exciting forms of performing art. He later brought West Side Story, Ain't Misbehavin', The Fantasticks, A Chorus Line and Porgy and Bess around the globe. Klein made a career of investing in shows he believed in and encouraging audiences to expand the cultural vocabularies and embrace them, too. At a time when European audiences were faithful to Renaissance aesthetics but growing hungry for the avant garde, Klein fed them a wide  array of innovative and cutting edge artists with great success, proving that all cultures can delight in what other nations’ artists have to offer.

He lives with his wife Phyllis, a psychoanalyst, on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, where they raised their two daughters, Nadia and Alexis. He also has a home in Tuscany, where he connects to his European roots - in the garden and otherwise.