Super-cellist Yo Yo Ma is to become a United Nations peace envoy, or so says UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, who met the musician last Thursday and subsequently confirmed to reporters that "Yes, he will be a peace envoy."
Ma joins a list of personalities chosen by Annan as "messengers of peace" that includes some other music names such Luciano Pavarotti, Wynton Marsalis and singer-composer Enrico Macias, as well as environmentalist Jane Goodall, actor Michael Douglas, basketball player Earvin "Magic" Johnson, and Nobel laureate writer Elie Weisel.