'Possibly Possessed' Keyboardist Anna Eberhart on Her Viral Fame and 'Crazy Faces': 'That's Just What I Do!'

Keyboardist Anna Eberhart had no idea anyone was filming her when she was performing with the Boston Crusaders Drum and Bugle Corp recently.

The 17-year-old Texas native was playing in the group's 2016 show, Quixotic – a tribute to Don Quixote of La Manche – and making fierce, dramatic faces during a section in which Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra's character falls into insanity.

"Don Quixote goes crazy, so I was making crazy faces," the young musician tells PEOPLE. "We weren't necessarily told to make those faces, but I did anyway."

A mesmerized viewer in the audience, baker Mike O'Neil, was so taken by Anna's performance, he filmed it to to show a friend of his who sits on the board of directors for the Crusaders.



'He said, 'You gotta check this girl out,' " Anna's mother Melinda Johnson Eberhart explains to PEOPLE. "He never meant for it to do this."

O'Neil posted the video on July 6 and within days it became a viral hit, with over 3 million views and counting.

"It's been pretty crazy," Anna says of the fame. "Whenever we go to perform at shows, random people in the parking lot come up to me and ask for pictures and point at me and say, 'Hey are you the crazy pit girl?' "

Anna had just finished a performance the first time she saw the video. She was tagged in O'Neill's post, and noticed that some of the comments were negative. "They were more like, 'Wow she looked really weird – why is she doing that?' " she explains.

But it didn't take long for Anna to find the humor in it. "I thought it was really funny. I showed it to the rest of the percussion performers and they thought it was hilarious. I didn't even know that anyone was recording me. That's just what I do!" she says.

Her mom was less excited at first. "We were in shock," the 45-year-old says. "I was like, 'Girl – those are some crazy faces. Whoa Nelly!' "

"The whole thing has been surreal," Melinda adds.

Anna first decided she wanted to play in the band during middle school. She grew up in a musical family, taking piano lessons since she was 6 years old behind two older brothers, ages 21 and 18.

"There's a love of music from our household," her mom says. "It's a great source of expression and she just picked up on it."

While her mom says she has "a natural talent for performing," band has always been Anna's focus. She played flute ever since sixth grade, and used her piano past to audition for the Crusaders on the synthesizer since they don't have woodwind instruments in the group.

When the school year starts again, the straight-A student and high school senior will conduct her John H. Guyer High School band as drum major. Her brother also starts in the University of North Texas – one of the nation's leading music colleges – in the fall, and he'll march with their band playing trumpet. Once she graduates, Anna plans to follow.

"She's incredibly talented," Christopher Holland, executive director of the Crusaders, tells PEOPLE.

Holland auditions 750 mostly college students or college seniors under 21 a year for the group – one of the top 10 drum and bugle corps in the world.

"There's a future for her in the business if she chose to do that," he adds.

Holland says he auditioned 300 percussionists for 45 spots. "We are successful because of members like Anna," he says. "As a part of the performance of being in front, you are down front [and] have an intimate performance with the audience. We teach body performance as part of their musical performance. She has an innate ability to connect with the material and audience she is playing for."

"We noticed early on," Holland says of Anna's now-famous faces. "We'd notice when the stadium was empty and we were practicing. We had staff or volunteers or board of directors who came to check in, and they would say, 'Boy, she really stands out! She's really a great performer!' "

"She's just a great kid," her mother adds. "I've never seen a child with more dedication and more drive and more determination. Just a great all-around kid."

Anna will be on tour with the Crusaders through August 15. She's bonded with the other musicians in the group, whom she calls "a big family."

"They all make jokes about it," she says, laughing. "They'll walk by me and say, 'Oh my God, it's the possibly possessed pit girl!' Can I have your autograph?' "

And while she's appreciating the fame – and the messages of support from former Crusaders – Anna says she's going to put all her focusing on "being great" at what she does.

"If I'm going to spend my entire summer trying to be a great performer, I might as well do as much as I can. It's not really for anyone but myself and the fans that are there. I just want to put on a good show and get attached to the music," she says.