When my opera Plump Jack was performed in 1989, my first piano teacher sent me something that I'd composed when I was four. I remember I played it, and it still sounded like me. I'm the same composer I was then.
I've had every advantage in the world, despite the 18 years of silence which were nobody's fault but mine.
I personally do not write highbrow music. If I do, it's by accident.