<p>The first part of your question answers the question, “balance”. My son is a junior at a top HS—an excellent student, and a musician who studies classical voice, does vocal competitions, performs all year in musical theatre at HS, typically with a lead role. SO, that by itself is many hours. He LOVES music—he would tell you it is his passion—so my first question for your daughter is “what does she LOVE?” Then, I would allow her to choose a schedule that she can reasonably maintain good grades. If she hates history, take regular history next year. Maybe she is better at math/physics (many musicians are!). Then, the more important thing is that she gets a good grade in the class…did you know that you are NOT required to take the AP exam? Most teachers expect you to take it because when they have a high pass rate, it makes them look good too. If you daughter gets a “2” on the exam, but has a high B or A in the class, that is what is most important to college admissions----the difficulty of her overall curriculum and how well she did, not individual AP scores. I think kids who do what they love in addition to going to school are happier people overall. Hope this helps.</p>