Music of the Heart
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40 free Music of the Heart trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Music of the Heart is the odd one out in its director's career: a warm, true-life drama about a violin teacher, made by a filmmaker best known for nightmares. Released in 1999, it tells how one determined woman built a string program in New York public schools and then fought to keep it alive. This quiz covers the whole picture: the plot and its real-life roots, the cast and the famous musicians who appear as themselves, the hit theme song and soundtrack, and how the film fared with critics, audiences and awards voters. It is written for fans of the film, music lovers and anyone who enjoys a good movie-night quiz. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so you pick up the story behind the story as you play.
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Q 01Which horror director, creator of Freddy Krueger, changed genres to make Music of the Heart?
Wes Craven
Wes Craven called the film the culmination of almost 30 years of trying to work outside horror. It is his only film to earn Oscar nominations.
Q 02Which pop star took violin lessons for the lead in Music of the Heart, then quit before filming?
Madonna
Madonna had studied the violin for many months before leaving over creative differences with the director. Her replacement had only about six weeks to prepare.
Q 03Which actress earned an Oscar nomination as violin teacher Roberta Guaspari in Music of the Heart?
Meryl Streep
Meryl Streep joined at the last minute and had six weeks to learn the violin. Her nomination, her twelfth, tied Katharine Hepburn's record for acting nods.
Q 04Which famous New York venue hosts the students' benefit concert at the climax of Music of the Heart?
Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall became the venue only after the first one fell through weeks before the show. Well-known musicians who rallied to the cause arranged the move.
Q 05Which boy band sang on Music of My Heart, the Oscar-nominated theme song from Music of the Heart?
NSYNC
NSYNC shared the vocals on the ballad, which peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot 100. It served as a stopgap between the group's album releases.
Q 06Which Latin pop star made her film debut as teacher Isabel Vasquez in Music of the Heart?
Gloria Estefan
Gloria Estefan played one of Roberta's earliest allies at the school and earned an ALMA Award nomination for it. She also sang on the film's theme song.
Q 07Which future Succession star plays Alexi, Roberta Guaspari's younger son, in Music of the Heart?
Kieran Culkin
Kieran Culkin played the younger of Roberta's two sons nearly twenty years before his career resurgence as Roman Roy. That later role won him an Emmy.
Q 08Which violinist, the soloist on the Schindler's List score, plays himself in Music of the Heart?
Itzhak Perlman
Itzhak Perlman appears in the concert finale, recreating a benefit he really played. He contracted polio at four and performs seated.
Q 09Which actress, Oscar-nominated as Tina Turner, plays principal Janet Williams in Music of the Heart?
Angela Bassett
Angela Bassett won an NAACP Image Award as the principal who champions Roberta's cause. Her Tina Turner biopic was What's Love Got to Do with It.
Q 10Music of My Heart lost the Best Original Song Oscar to a Phil Collins ballad from which Disney film?
Tarzan
Tarzan took the award with You'll Be in My Heart, which became Phil Collins's last US top-40 single.
Q 11Music of the Heart follows a violin program at public schools in which Manhattan neighborhood?
East Harlem
East Harlem is where the program began at Central Park East School before spreading to two more schools. The real teacher was still working there when the film was made.
Q 12In Music of the Heart, Roberta Guaspari bought 50 child-size violins while living in which country?
Greece
Greece is where her husband had been based, and the violins she bought there gave her a ready-made class set to offer the school.
Q 13Which Oscar-nominated 1995 documentary about Roberta Guaspari inspired the drama Music of the Heart?
Small Wonders
Q 21Which violinist who once busked incognito in a Washington subway cameos in Music of the Heart?
Joshua Bell
Joshua Bell joins the concert finale as one of the star soloists. He also played the violin solos on the Oscar-winning score for The Red Violin.
Q 22The star of Music of the Heart learned a concerto for two violins by which Baroque composer?
Bach
Bach's Concerto for Two Violins also appears on the soundtrack album, played by two of the virtuosos who turn up in the film.
Q 23Which Legends of the Fall actor plays Roberta Guaspari's love interest Brian in Music of the Heart?
Aidan Quinn
Aidan Quinn's character is the former classmate who gets Roberta her introduction to the principal who first takes her on.
Small Wonders so moved the drama's director that he set out to make a full-length film of the story. Its own director, Allan Miller, became one of the feature's producers.
Q 14What is the benefit concert that Roberta Guaspari plans in Music of the Heart called?
Fiddlefest
Fiddlefest takes two years to plan in the film, and the money it raised kept the violin program going for three more years.
Q 15Which songwriter behind Aerosmith's I Don't Want to Miss a Thing also wrote Music of My Heart?
Diane Warren
Diane Warren earned an Oscar nomination for the ballad, which also won the Critics' Choice award for Best Song.
Q 16Jane Leeves, photographer Dorothea in Music of the Heart, was then a regular on which hit sitcom?
Frasier
Frasier cast Leeves as the eccentric Daphne Moon from 1993 to 2004, a role that brought her Emmy and Golden Globe nominations.
Q 17Which Last Picture Show Oscar winner plays Roberta Guaspari's mother in Music of the Heart?
Cloris Leachman
Cloris Leachman plays the well-meaning but overbearing mother who pushes Roberta to go back to work after her divorce.
Q 18Who won the Best Actress Oscar for Boys Don't Cry, beating the star of Music of the Heart?
Hilary Swank
Hilary Swank won for playing Brandon Teena. Music of the Heart went home empty-handed from both of its nominations that night.
Q 19Which studio released Music of the Heart after giving its director a three-picture deal?
Miramax
Miramax's founders asked for two horror films in the deal and let the third be a drama of the kind the studio was known for.
Q 20In Music of the Heart, what threatens to end Roberta Guaspari's violin program after ten years?
Budget cuts
Budget cuts wipe out the program's funding and cost Roberta her job, so she enlists former pupils, parents and teachers to fight back.
Q 24In Music of the Heart, Roberta Guaspari's ex-husband Charles is an officer in which military branch?
US Navy
US Navy officer Charles has left Roberta for one of her friends when the story opens, leaving her to rebuild her life with two sons.
Q 25What department-store job does Roberta Guaspari hold at the start of Music of the Heart?
Wrapping gifts
Wrapping gifts is the job where she runs into a former classmate, who then arranges her introduction to a school principal.
Q 26Music of the Heart's epilogue says Roberta Guaspari adopted her daughter Sophia from which country?
El Salvador
El Salvador is where Roberta adopted Sophia in 1991, and the real Sophia Guaspari appears in the film in a brief role as Rosario.
Q 27Music of the Heart's epilogue says Roberta Guaspari's son Nicholas plays which instrument professionally?
Cello
Cello became Nicholas's profession, the closing titles say, while his younger brother Alexi was accepted to medical school.
Q 28Which producer of Whitney Houston's I Will Always Love You also produced Music of My Heart?
David Foster
David Foster produced the single, which was certified gold in the United States for sales of 500,000 copies.
Q 29The real Roberta Guaspari of Music of the Heart was born in which upstate New York city?
Rome
Rome, New York, was her birthplace, a fitting one for a woman whose grandparents on both sides came from Italy.
Q 30Which violinist, soloist on the Fiddler on the Roof film soundtrack, cameos in Music of the Heart?
Isaac Stern
Isaac Stern is among the famous names recruited to rescue the concert, just as he was in life. He died two years after the film came out.