Wynton Marsalis will be named as a United Nations messenger of peace by Secretary-General Kofi Annan on March 20. Marsalis is one of the secretary-general's favorite musicians and will be joined several other celebrities who are goodwill envoys for the United Nations to publicize the work of the world body during their performances and other activities.
Individual U.N. agencies have named celebrities to represent them, but only eight have been chosen by Annan to campaign for the organization as a whole. They include Luciano Pavarotti, Muhammad Ali, Michael Douglas, French-Algerian singer Enrico Macias, author Elie Wiesel, Magic Johnson, Italian journalist and author Anna Cataldi, and Indian tennis star and sports announcer Vijay Amritraj.
