Thank you all for your comments and experience, I am sharing this thread with DS20. He loves music and fwiw, all his music teachers think he is very talented. He is taking IB music for his junior/senior years, doing youth symphony, participating in local/regional/national performance competition, and composing music on his own all the time. However, he also has many other interests and being a 15-yo boy, I think he does not need to zero-in too early, esp he is not very interested in music performance, more into composing/conducting at the moment.