 In 1999 , Streep portrayed Roberta <unk> , a real @-@ life New Yorker who found passion and enlightenment teaching violin to the inner @-@ city kids of East Harlem , in the music drama Music of the Heart . A departure from director Wes Craven 's previous work on films like A Nightmare on Elm Street and the Scream series , Streep replaced singer Madonna who left the project before filming began due to creative differences with Craven . Required to perform on the violin , Streep went through two months of intense training , five to six hours a day . Streep received nominations for an Academy Award , a Golden Globe and a Screen Actors Guild Award for her performance . Roger Ebert gave the film three stars out of four and wrote that " Meryl Streep is known for her mastery of accents ; she may be the most versatile speaker in the movies . Here you might think she has no accent , unless you 've heard her real speaking voice ; then you realize that <unk> 's speaking style is no less a particular achievement than Streep 's other accents . This is not Streep 's voice , but someone else 's – with a certain flat quality , as if later education and refinement came after a somewhat unsophisticated childhood . " 
