About the Band

Bob Hiltermann (drummer), Ed Chevy (bassist), and Steve Longo (guitarist) make up the band Beethoven's Nightmare. They all grew up in different cities and met as students at Gallaudet University in Washington DC and decided to start their own rock band, The Funk. After graduation in 1975, they all went their separate ways. However, shortly after 9/11, Hiltermann called up Chevy and Longo and suggested a playing together at a reunion gig. The reunion never ended, and they still play together today at Deaf festivals all over the world and even Disneyland for both Deaf and hearing audiences. They've produced songs like "Turn It Up Louder," "Deaf Rock Boom," and "I Wanna Feel the Beat." 

The band takes inspiration from other groups like The Who, The Doors, and other rock bands. At their performances, they hand out balloons to audience members, both Deaf and hearing, so they can feel the same vibrations the band members do through the speakers and amps. The majority of their songs can be divided into two categories; songs with few lyrics that convey abstract ideas, dramatic pantomimes from the band members and ASL translators, and describing their experiences as Deaf musicians, and then songs replacing the dramatic pantomimes with more clearly articulated English translations of ASL signs that speak directly about Deaf culture.

Beethoven's Nightmare articulates their life experiences as Deaf minorities in a hearing majority culture. As college students, rock n' roll provided them with the ability to express these feelings and gave them the musical experience they had always been looking for growing up. They've now become the first musical group in the American Deaf community to achieve any level of fame like this, and they've broken ground for a new musical culture that bridges Deaf music and cultural practices (ASL signing on the beat and the physical and visual experiences of music) with hearing music (rock n' roll).