Client: U.S. Department of State
Agency: Freeman
Venue: Getty Villa, Los Angeles
While the Summit of the Americas convened at the Los Angeles Convention Center, the President had something far more intimate in mind for one evening: a private gathering of 30 world leaders with President Biden at the Getty Villa; a stunning museum and garden estate built into the coastal mountains overlooking the Pacific.
This wasn’t a large-scale diplomatic production. It was a once-in-a-lifetime evening designed to feel effortless, elegant, and personal. And that’s precisely what made it so complex.
GXP’s Role: Executive Producer
We oversaw all AV and show production for the evening, managing audio, lighting, and video teams totaling 20 crew members. My scope covered everything from the red carpet arrivals through the amphitheater performance and final departures. Any element that touched sound, light, or video was our responsibility.
The mandate was clear: make the production invisible. No cables, no boxes, no crew in sight. The evening had to feel like the villa itself was simply coming alive.
The Evening’s Flow
The 4-hour experience was carefully choreographed across the entire Getty Villa campus:
Red Carpet Arrivals: World leaders from every nation invited to the Summit arrived in their motorcades and were filmed live, with the feed sent via LiveU (with redundancy) back to the Convention Center’s master control for streaming to the press pool and the world.
Garden Procession: Guests walked through the villa’s vegetable and flower gardens, a serene transition from arrival to the evening’s first gathering all lit elegantly by our team.
Cocktail Reception (Inner Peristyle): An intimate space with live acoustic music where leaders could connect before dinner.
Five-Course Dinner (Outer Peristyle): President Biden addressed the press pool to open the meal, after which a string section from the President’s Own U.S. Marine Band performed throughout dinner.
Amphitheater Performance: The centerpiece of the evening—a 10-minute concert featuring the full President’s Own U.S. Marine Band, military vocalists, and honor guard representing the Army, Marines, Navy, Air Force, and Coast Guard. Over 150 performers filled the space, with each participating nation’s flag presented by the color guard.
Dessert & Departures (Inner Peristyle): Guests returned to the inner courtyard for a final, quiet moment before departing.
The Challenge: Production That Disappears
The Getty Villa is an architectural and artistic treasure. Our production couldn’t compete with it—it had to enhance it without being seen.
Lighting the Entire Campus:
The villa has minimal existing lighting, and most of the evening would unfold after dark. We needed to illuminate everything from the entrance through the gardens, peristyles, and amphitheater—while making it look natural, unobtrusive, and beautiful.
Our solutions were creative by necessity:
- Fixtures were color-matched to painted walls and architectural details
- Lighting was hidden in planters, behind pillars, and affixed to metal ceilings with magnets
- Cables were buried in soil, tucked into landscape features, or routed through existing structures
- Every piece of gear had to either blend in or disappear entirely
Audio in Two Configurations:
We built two distinct audio systems. One for the outdoor dinner and one for the amphitheater performance. Both had to be powerful enough to support presidential remarks and a full orchestra, yet discreet enough to maintain the villa’s aesthetic.
Supporting Law Enforcement Infrastructure:
Wherever the President goes, communication and security infrastructure follows. We coordinated with internet and cellular teams to support enhanced law enforcement equipment, focusing primarily on cable management and concealment, making their gear as invisible as ours.
The Scope That Grew
Our initial brief was significantly smaller: a guitarist or pianist for dinner, a modest performance in the amphitheater. But as the President’s team finalized details, the scope expanded dramatically.
The dinner “guitarist” became a full string section from the Marine Band. The amphitheater performance grew to over 150 musicians, vocalists, and color guard members. The reveal came late. Singers and flags were added after our trucks had already left the shop, meaning we were locked into the gear and crew we’d originally scoped.
With only 20 crew members (4 audio, 8 lighting, 8 video), we relied heavily on the Getty’s in-house AV team to supplement what we were missing. There was no opportunity to add more equipment or personnel. We simply had to make it work.
The Rehearsal Reality
We had two days to load in and no full rehearsal. We ran separate technical rehearsals with the band, the chorus, and the color guard, but never saw all 150+ performers together until showtime.
This level of trust and precision is only possible when working with world-class military musicians and a production team that knows how to anticipate and adapt in real time. Movement during the show was tightly restricted. Crew who needed to approach the President for microphone placement or cues had to be pre-cleared by Secret Service and follow specific protocols, and the performance space was so intimate that every step had to be intentional.
The Moment
When the President’s Own U.S. Marine Band filled the amphitheater with sound, when the military chorus voices echoed off the villa’s ancient-style columns, when the color guard presented the flags of 30 nations under carefully hidden lighting… it was breathtaking.
The client later shared that they got goosebumps during the performance. It was one of those rare productions where everything aligned: the setting, the talent, the purpose, and the execution.
This evening will never happen again. The convergence of this venue, this guest list, this moment in diplomatic history… it was singular. And our job was to make sure the production never got in the way of that magic.
The Impact
The Getty Villa evening wasn’t the largest event of the Summit of the Americas, but it may have been the most memorable. It proved that sometimes the most powerful production work is the kind that no one notices. Where the technology, the crew, and the logistics all fade away, leaving only the experience.
For those 30 world leaders, their guests, and the President, the evening felt effortless. Behind the scenes, it was anything but. And that’s exactly how it should have been.
After the broadcast was cut, we had a lock down camera or two set for archival purposes. Here’s some of that footage:
