I'm currently finishing my second year of what was supposed to be a two year term (but was recently extended to three years) as the organ scholar [1] at one of the larger churches in the U.S. The director of music and I are the only two organists on staff, so I get to play for thousands of people and accompany/conduct a professional choir every week. I left the tech world to do that because I knew I wanted to at least try working in music at some point in my career. I am still working on several open source projects, so I haven't taken a complete break from software development.

I'm technically 3/4 time at the church, so I've been looking for a part time tech job to augment that for the last two years, but have found getting one quite difficult since there are so few available. I always assumed this foray into church music would be a break from technical work and I'd go back after I was done, but my two closest mentors are strongly encouraging me to go to graduate school for organ performance after I finish my term, as my undergraduate degree is in math. I'm also somewhat concerned about my viability as a candidate trying to re-enter the tech world after being away for a few years.

I'm not yet sure what I'm going to do next year. I'm definitely happier than I ever was working in tech, although I struggle with feeling like I'm looked down upon for "just" being a musician. I also worry about the long term financial impact (retirement) if I do stay in church music, as the pay is obviously much, much lower than I'd expect otherwise. Unlike most people in this thread, I took my break early in my career, so I don't have a large pile of savings to fall back on.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organ_scholar