Can one really enter a BA degree of Music (particularly in Europe) if they have not been playing three instruments and studying theory since they were five? This really is the feeling I get every time I talk to the admission office of ANY university that has a degree in music. They all have at least three or five stages for their entrance examination and that you can easily play any Chopin piece on the piano.
I have been yearning for studies in Music/Composition since my early teenhood. I picked up the guitar when I was about 15. I remember practicing no less than 8 hours a day until I was 17-18 when I entered university. I had to opt for a BA in Computer Science (because of family pressure) and not Music.
Years have passed since then and my love for music has increased day by day, and I have been adding more and more different instruments to my room (flute, piano, clarinet) becoming more and more obsessed by instruments and music in general. I am on the verge of finishing my Master's degree in Computer Science, and it was during the previous semester that I took a Music Theory course at the university as an elective course. I was so amazed by how enjoyable the classes were for me. However, I was so depressed to see that all those people in the class know all the scales by heart, they can play the piano so brilliantly, and they can do chord/harmony analysis in a matter of seconds.
Music is not a hobby for me and that's what's killing me, because doing Computer Science is just forcing music into being a hobby, and that's not what I want. Music is my entire existence and the more I go forward academically in Computer Science I see how much less time I have got for music and practicing.
My utmost concern is firstly, how to enter a BA degree given my background? And secondly, can I really be optimistic about earning money from a PhD in music? I know that if I start a BA in music right now, it is gonna take me a good 8-9 years to reach PhD level. Can I then be absolutely sure I would be able to earn money from my degree and completely throw away Computer Science for good?
My goal is to become an impeccable musician/performer and truly learn composition, music theory, and orchestration extremely well and put it into use. That is, I wish to not only be a performer of few different instruments but also be a composer very well familiar with all the meticulous details of theory and composition, and potentially even do research in music theory.