When Emma saw a little girl play a violin in kindergarten, she had no idea that would be the starting point of a musical journey that would take her to play on stages such as Carnegie Hall and to open for country music star Josh Turner…
Kindergarten show-and-tell is not the kind of place you’d expect to find your passion in life. However as five-year-old Emma Borders watched her fellow classmate move the bow back and forth across the strings, she was overcome with inspiration. She knew she had been born to play the violin.
From that moment forward, Emma began to dedicate her time and energy to learning more about music. She progressed quickly on the violin under her local teachers and was given even more opportunities to learn and perform when her family moved from more rural West Tennessee to “Music City” Nashville, TN. At age ten, Emma began to eye another stringed instrument. Inspired by virtuoso players such as Chris Thile and Sierra Hull, Emma immediately fell in love with the mandolin and its playful tone and folkish style. The mandolin dovetailed nicely with her growing violin skills and granted her the ability to both play and sing at the same time. She soon began to explore the world of songwriting and recorded her first original EP titled “Born to Fly” in 2019 with her four younger siblings. These six songs have a theme of faith and family, two values that are extremely important to Emma and her family.
Emma isn’t the only musical prodigy in her family. She has a total of five younger siblings, four who play and sing as well! Together they call themselves “The Borders Band”, a name that pays homage to their grandparents who have been playing southern gospel music together for over fifty years. With a wide variety of instruments such as cello, piano, drums, guitar, and bass, the Borders Band plays many different styles of music including folk-rock, bluegrass, classical, and worship. While Emma and her siblings are all classically-trained, they enjoy pairing instruments together such as electric guitar with the violin and the mandolin with the cello to create a style and sound all their own. They love using their music to glorify God and have played at many churches in the surrounding area and have also appeared on Woodsongs Old Time Radio Hour which airs on RFD.
Though Emma has played on iconic stages such as the Grand Ole Opry House and Carnegie Hall and is a featured Weber artist, one of her biggest opportunities came at the beginning of 2020 when she got to open for country music artist Josh Turner in multiple cities. There she wowed the audience with not only her violin virtuosity but also with her fast-paced mandolin skills.
While Emma does love performing and sharing her music with others, she spends the majority of her time working from home. For the past three years, Emma has faithfully posted what she calls “a minute melody” every Monday on her instagram account. These fun, creative covers/original arrangements are one of the ways that Emma engages with her followers and shares her love for music online. From the very beginning of her musical career, she has sought to use her classical chops in more non-traditional ways. She loves to explore new genres of music as well as new musical combinations that are fresh to the ear. Growing up in a family band, Emma has had plenty of opportunities to arrange music for herself and her siblings to play. One of her favorite things to do is create her own original arrangements from popular songs such as “Rewrite the Stars” and from classical sources such as Bach. These can be found on her YouTube channel, along with informative instructional videos where Emma shares some of her musical tips!
Growing up with younger siblings who also played music, Emma was accustomed to teaching from a young age. She has grown to love helping others on their musical journey and teaching them everything she has learned. Her goal is to equip her students with the skills needed to play excellently and ultimately to help them steward their gift in a way that glorifies the One who created music in the first place!
Out of everything Emma has done with music, her favorite way to use her talent is in worship. She knows that music is a gift from God and seeks to bring Him glory in the way she uses it. Getting to be on the worship team at her local church and getting to lead others into the presence of the Lord through worship is a privilege that she doesn’t take lightly.
Emma is excited about the future as she continues in learning and creating music, and she is very thankful she was there that day the little girl brought a violin to show-and-tell!