Way way harder than pop music. You're competing for a few thousand jobs in city orchestras, or tens of thousands of jobs teaching in colleges, or maybe you form a chamber group and release records. But classical European music is a zombie art form that very few people keep up with. It's more niche than Jazz, which is also a zombie medium.
Pop music though? Indie artists struggle, but there are millions of mid-level artists who make a living, and tens of thousands of artists who make it big. Mom has some weird bias about classical music being superior, and it's delulu.