I never knew about this. I suspect others didn’t, either, so I’m posting it here, for those to come. Many music students also have high academic achievement, because the drive and focus required for high achievement in music often is also applied to schoolwork. There is an annual national competition for the arts, music included. It can be found here: https://www.youngarts.org/apply. Audition requirements are given for every instrument. The deadline appears to be in mid October. It can lead into the Presidential Scholars competition. High scores on the SAT or ACT also can lead into the Presidential Scholars competition, and I suspect that there are some very fine musicians who could qualify through both music and test scores. Students also need to be nominated by their state’s nominator, found here: https://ccsso.org/chiefs.
I realize that schools will see the high scores, anyway, and that they will know of a musician’s ability through his/her audition, but being named a Presidential Scholar is a tremendous honor - plus the scholars get to meet each other, and go to the White House for an awards ceremony. It’s a big deal, but you need to know about it to get into it. Yes, you need to have the achievement, but you also need to have known how to apply, and how to make the request for consideration from your state’s nominator. It sounds a lot like applications to the service academies - you need the qualifications, but you also need connections.
Anyway, maybe this information will be of use to someone in the future.