Emma Borders

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. That afternoon she desperately tried to convince her mom to sign her up for lessons, but having three children younger than Emma at the time, her mother wasn’t convinced. It took a little time and persistence, but her mother finally realized this was more than just a whim. It didn’t take long to see that Emma had a passion and an innate talent for music. She quickly progressed 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. After watching virtuoso players Chris Thile and Sierra Hull, Emma immediately fell in love with the mandolin and its groovy rhythms 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. From the very beginning of her mandolin career, Emma has sought to use her classical chops on the mandolin in more non-traditional styles of music. Seeing her seriousness and growing love for the instrument, Emma’s father decided to purchase her an octave mandolin in order to encourage a more “out of the box” style. While doing his research, he came across the Weber brand of instruments. After seeing the aforementioned Hull playing her own Weber octave, he not only purchased a Bridger octave mandolin for Emma, he also purchased an Absaroka mandocello for her younger brother Davis, a cellist and guitar player. Once her brother grew old enough to play the mandocello, Emma began to write songs combining the two beautiful instruments along with the more traditional sized mandolin. Emma isn’t the only musical prodigy in the family. She has four younger siblings who play a variety of instruments including the piano, cello, drums, guitar, and bass just to name a few! Collectively 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. While Emma and her siblings are all classically trained, they enjoy pairing instruments together such as the electric guitar with the violin and the mandolin with the cello to create a style and sound all their own. With a literal “in-house” band, Emma has plenty of opportunities to arrange music for herself and her siblings to play. Two years ago they recorded their first EP titled “Born to Fly”. The EP features six original songs written by Emma and her family. The songs have a theme of faith and family, two values that are extremely important to this family of musicians. While Emma has played on iconic stages such as the Grand Ole Opry House and Carnegie Hall, the highlight of her musical career came when she opened for country music artist Josh Turner in multiple cities at the beginning of 2020. There she wowed the audience with not only her violin virtuosity but also with her incredible fast-paced mandolin skills. While Emma and her siblings have no idea what the future holds for sure, she is very thankful she was there that day the little girl brought a violin to show-and tell!

Signature Artists Weber Artists People Who Play