Since 2009, patrons at the National Museum of the Marine Corps in Virginia have experienced the sound of “The President’s Own” through an audiovisual exhibit incorporating the band’s renditions of some of its most iconic repertoire. In 2025, the Marine Band was asked to re-record these pieces for a new iteration of the exhibit, refreshing the experience for the next generation of museum visitors.

Four of the most iconic marches by 17th Marine Band Director John Philip Sousa were chosen to represent the Marine Band at the NMMC when the project was envisioned in 2009: “The Stars and Stripes Forever,” “Semper Fidelis,” “The Liberty Bell” and “Washington Post.” “The Marine Band is incredible at performing just about any style of music you can imagine, but we’re best known for our Sousa marches,” Marine Band Chief Librarian Gunnery Sgt. Charles Paul said. “For this project, we worked with the museum to bring new life to these videos of the band performing some of Sousa’s ‘greatest hits’ that I think patrons will love!”

Marine Band librarians met the needs of the ensemble by slightly tweaking the arrangements used for the video recordings. “We try to optimize pieces for whatever scenario we’re working with,” Paul said. The listener won’t be able to tell the difference in the end product, but we’re always fine-tuning the music for projects like this.”

The National Museum of the Marine Corps has a unique relationship with the Marine Band’s Music Library, leading to frequent collaboration between the two parties. The museum retains curatorial control of Marine Band-related artifacts, while the band retains physical possession of items unless they are needed for public programs.

When the Marine Band recorded performances for the National Museum of the Marine Corps in 2009, they were produced by an outside firm and later became the first recordings posted to the Marine Band’s YouTube channel in 2011, which now boasts over 130,000 subscribers. For this re-recording project, the band’s six-member Recording Lab recorded, filmed and produced the entirety of the four videos in-house. “I’m proud of our team’s ability to produce this amazing content. It’s surreal to think about how many people will hear this music while exploring the museum and be drawn in by the sound of the Marine Band,” Marine Band Assistant Chief Recording Engineer Gunnery Sgt. Ophir Paz said.

Recording the new videos presented several unique challenges for the Marine Band’s production staff. The band’s home at John Philip Sousa Band Hall in Washington is in the midst of a renovation project, leading “The President’s Own” to shift production to another familiar venue, Rachel M. Schlesinger Concert Hall and Arts Center at Northern Virginia Community College in Alexandria, Virginia. “We record our yearly albums releases at Schlesinger Hall, so we're very familiar with the space. The mindset of, ‘hey, we also need to shoot video,’ made this a bear of a project, though,” Marine Band Chief Recording Engineer Gunnery Sgt. Mike Ducassoux said. 

When the band records albums at Schlesinger Hall, the Recording Lab uses an array of over 60 microphones to individually capture the sounds of each performer. “Utilizing 62-plus microphones doesn’t make sense for recording a video project, so we used a setup with six to ten mics to capture the sound of the band as the viewer would hear it in concert, while also incorporating video,” Ducassoux said. “We often talk about the ‘sound of the Marine Band’ being very unique, so it was a fun challenge trying to capture that with just a few microphones. It can be very overwhelming for a recording engineer because it's so much sound coming at you, but the tactics and approaches that we use really allow us to know that when we deploy it, we know exactly what we're going to get.”

National Museum of the Marine Corps staff were active participants throughout the production process, sending advisors to the recording session to observe “The President’s Own” and make sure the captured footage and audio fit with the museum’s expectations for the final product. “They were fantastic, a lot of fun to work with. We had a lot of laughs in the booth that day, and it was an easy and smooth process,” Ducassoux said.

The significance of producing a project likely to remain on view for a decade or longer is not lost on Ducassoux and Paz:

“Those videos might outlast us here in the band, which is crazy to think about. Whether it's somebody that's visiting next week or somebody there 15 years from now, our goal is showing the band as it is now and showing the band as it will be, hopefully, 15 to 20 years from now,” Ducassoux said. “No matter what the band does in the future, we are still rooted in the tradition of where we've come from, much of which is in the marches that we play in a way that no one else can play them.”

“We are a very educational-based organization. We want the person who's listening to hear these marches as the conductor intended them to be heard and the way Sousa intended them to be heard when he was composing all those years ago,” Paz added. “I'm excited to get down there and actually see the new exhibit and hear it in its full glory!”

Viewers can experience the new recordings as part of the “Global Expeditionary Force” exhibit, on view now at the National Museum of the Marine Corps in Triangle, Virginia.