Marsalis emerged as one of the most notable New Orleans civic leaders in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. In a number of public speeches and television ads, he tried to increase public awareness of the importance of rebuilding New Orleans.

He urged people to visit Louisiana as soon as possible and organized a large benefit at Jazz at Lincoln Center for musicians and other New Orleaneans affected by Hurricane Katrina.

Marsalis also produces music education programs for public radio and television. His four-part, Peabody Award-winning TV series Marsalis on Music, introduces young viewers to the adventure of making music.

Most recently Marsalis served as a principal consultant and on-camera commentator for the 20-hour documentary series, "Jazz", produced by Ken Burns, which appeared on public television in January, 2001.

At age six, Marsalis was given his first trumpet by a friend of his father, the legendary Al Hirt. At age 14, he made his debut with the New Orleans Philharmonic. During his high school years attending Benjamin Franklin High School he moved to New York City to attend the Juilliard School of Music in 1978.

By age 19, Marsalis had signed a recording contract with CBS Records. He made his recording debut as a leader in 1982, and over the next 17 years produced close to 40 jazz and classical recordings for Columbia Jazz and Sony Classical. In 1983 he became the first and only artist to win both classical and jazz Grammy Awards in the same year, a feat he immediately repeated.

To date he has won six Grammy awards for his jazz recordings and two for recordings of classical music. He has received five Musician of the Year awards, and his recordings regularly sell hundreds of thousands of copies; one album stayed on the charts for 39 weeks.

In 1987 Wynton Marsalis co-founded Jazz at Lincoln Center to sponsor jazz performance and educational programs at New York's premier performing arts center.

Since 1992, Marsalis has served as the organization's Artistic Director, and as leader of the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra. In 1997 he became the first jazz musician to win the Pulitzer Prize in music, for his epic oratorio on the subject of slavery, Blood on the Fields.

Marsalis has been awarded the Grand Prix du Disque of France and the Edison Award of the Netherlands, and was elected an honorary member of England's Royal Academy of Music. In recognition of the many hours he has contributed to music education, community organisations, and charities, he has been given keys to cities across the country, all types of community service awards, and a congressional citation.

In May of 1997 he received honorary doctorate degrees from Rutgers University and Amherst College; these honours will be added to the list of colleges and universities that have recognised him, including Yale, Princeton, Brown, Columbia, John Hopkins, Brandeis, the Manhattan School of Music and the University of Miami.

He was profiled by 60 Minutes in December 1995. He has been the subject of cover stories for Life magazine, Time magazine, Parade, the Sunday New York Times Magazine, the Sunday Los Angeles Times Calendar, London Times magazine and Esquire (UK), as well as numerous appearances on the covers of Jazz Times, Downbeat, and Jazziz. In 1996, Time magazine named him among America's twenty five most influential people.