He has played the violin since age 5 and has often performed in front of large crowds, but the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music still rattled Caleb Mossburg when he arrived on campus last fall.

"The first two weeks of the first semester, I admit I was kind of freaked out a little," said the 18-year-old Indianapolis native.

Although he won a coveted full ride, or four-year scholarship, at one of the world's best-known music schools, Caleb said IU took some getting used to, "because it's a huge school and a new life."

He had to adjust to being surrounded by musical talent from around the world. Then there was "meeting all these new people and figuring out where I fit in musically and socially. But once everything was figured out, it got much more enjoyable, and I was able to focus more on my work."

Late one afternoon in IU's castlelike Musical Arts Center, Caleb propped his violin under his chin to polish up a Bach partita, or set of unaccompanied variations, that he and his teacher have been working on.

"Things have gone really well," he said. "I mean, you have to take it one day at a time. There are always huge challenges at IU. You have to have an idea what you want to accomplish each semester, but you can't look too far ahead, because you can get stressed out."

However, practice and study don't consume all of his time. He attends church on Sundays and plays basketball occasionally in the evenings. He and some friends also drove to Florida for spring break.

The oldest of nine children born to former Carmel schoolteachers Byron and Cindy Mossburg, Caleb was 8 when the Mossburgs moved to Fort Wayne so his father could work in the family masonry business.

As Caleb matured, he was driven to lessons at IU and Ohio's Oberlin Conservatory of Music. For four years, he played in Indy's New World Youth Orchestras.

Eight of the Mossburg children play the violin or viola. When a few of them perform together, they call themselves the Mossburg Strings.

Now that Caleb lives in Bloomington, he has been playing in the IU Symphony Orchestra. Jeff Cook, the orchestra's guest conductor (and longtime conductor for the Louisville Ballet), said the IU group recently spent several weeks preparing for a Bloomington dance concert.

"I've been very pleased with this orchestra," Cook said. "They come in with such a seriousness of purpose that they don't laugh at my jokes. Of course, that may be my fault."

Caleb said his main priorities include lessons with his private teacher, Alexander Kerr.

Kerr has been concertmaster, or first-chair first violinist, with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and the Royal Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. He is now principal guest concertmaster with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra.

Kerr said he's been trying to help Caleb "understand the physical feelings about how the violin should operate. I want to make him feel as if there's nothing he can't do, no sound he can't make . . . nothing inhibiting him."

During lessons, Caleb is inspired by Kerr's playing. "Because he's still performing, he has advice from a business perspective as well, and eventually, I'll be out looking for a job.

"I know I can be happy in a small orchestra. The two I'm shooting high for, Chicago or Boston, are places I'd love to work. But I know I would be happy in places like Indy. As long as I'll be able to make money and have a violin in my hand."