Chamber Music Boise

“…a warm sound, and much joy…vivacious!” - The Strad [Carnegie Hall debut]

Founder and Artistic Director of Chamber Music Boise (CMB), Aubrey Holmes, is a concert violinist/violist and chamber musician currently living and teaching in Boise, Idaho. During the 2022/2023 season, Mr. Holmes was a full time, core member of the Virginia Symphony Orchestra’s violin section - rotated into assistant concertmaster. He is also a founding member and violinist of the Heimat Quartet (2014–2020), which gave their Carnegie Hall debut in 2019. In the fall of the same year, Heimat joined the faculty at Shenandoah Conservatory in Winchester, VA, giving their final recital as an ensemble in February 2020 before disbanding after six years together.

From 2011–2015, Mr. Holmes was based in Boston, Massachusetts. Here he played in Symphony Nova (Concertmaster/Principal 2nd), MetroWest Opera (Principal 2nd), Symphony Pro Musica (Principal 2nd), Boston Opera Collaborative (Associate Concertmaster), The Cape Ann Symphony (Associate Principal 2nd), Boston Modern Orchestra Project, The Vermont Symphony Orchestra, and The Cape Symphony Orchestra. Mr. Holmes is also the former first violinist of the Videri String Quartet which specializes in the performance and recording of video game music.

Other notable appearances and engagements with Heimat include faculty positions at Interlochen Center for the Arts High School Division – Advanced String Quartet Seminar, as well as quarter-finalists at the 2017 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition. The Quartet also competed internationally at the 2019 Joachim International Chamber Music Competition held in Weimar, Germany where they also finished as quarter-finalists. Other international appearances include the International Mendelssohn Festival in Hamburg, Germany, The Esmeraldas International Music Festival held in Quito, Ecuador, and the Lunenberg Academy of Music (LAMP) in Lunenberg, Nova Scotia.

His primary mentors have included Dr. Blanka Bednarz, Dr. Irina Muresanu, Cathy Meng Robinson, and Daniel Kurganov, as well as members of the Miami String Quartet, Shanghai Quartet, and the Audubon Quartet.

Degrees Earned: Bachelor of Arts in violin performance, Master of Music in violin performance, Master of Music in chamber music (violin/Heimat Quartet), Artist Diploma in chamber music (violin/Heimat Quartet).

Nicole Oswald has served as the Acting Concertmaster of the Boise Philharmonic Orchestra beginning in the fall of 2024. A distinguished performer and dedicated educator, she is currently the Artist in Residence at the College of Idaho and a member of the Langroise Trio. Her commitment to community-driven music is reflected in her role as a founding member of the Thirdspace Quartet, which presented over 24 events in the Treasure Valley area during its opening season.

Ms. Oswald’s orchestral career includes a tenured core position with the Virginia Symphony Orchestra and a previous role as concertmaster of The Orchestra Now. She has also performed with the West Virginia Symphony Orchestra and collaborated with world-renowned artists such as Gil Shaham, Andrés Cárdenes, and Charlie Castleman. A seasoned soloist and chamber musician, she has performed across the United States and abroad since her debut near her hometown of Boise, Idaho, at the age of 10. Her competitive success includes awards from the MTNA National Senior Strings Soloist Competition, the Stradivarius International Violin Competition(Youth Division), and the Hudson Valley Philharmonic Strings Competition.

As an educator, Nicole maintains a private studio and has been invited to teach and perform at various institutions, including the College of William and Mary, Old Dominion University, and Christopher Newport University. Her academic background is marked by a strong international foundation; as a teenager, she studied abroad for three years at the Utrechts Conservatory in The Netherlands. She holds a Master of Music, Artist Diploma and Bachelor of Music from Carnegie Mellon University, Frost School of Music at the University of Miami, and the Eastman School of Music. During her graduate studies, she served as the teaching assistant for both Charlie Castleman and Andrés Cárdenes.

Rosie Weiss is a versatile violinist, fiddler, and studio musician. She’s associate concertmaster of the Billings Symphony, co-founder of Chamber Music Boise (CMB), and performs with the Boise Philharmonic, Bozeman Symphony, and Palm Beach Symphony. She’s adjunct violin faculty at Rocky Mountain College, and maintains a private violin and fiddle studio in Boise, Idaho.

As a founding member of Carnegie Hall's National Youth Orchestra, she served for three seasons as assistant and associate concertmaster, performing across Russia, Europe, and China. She also joined the Orchestra of the Americas for their South American tour. Most recently, she returned to Carnegie Hall with the NYO-USA All-Stars Orchestra, led by Yannick Nézet-Séguin. She has shared the stage with conductors and artists such as Valery Gergiev, Charles Dutoit, Gerard Schwarz, Joshua Bell, Emanuel Ax, and Daniil Trifonov.

As a chamber musician, she's spent her summers at festivals such as Festival Napa Valley and Zephyr International Chamber Music Festival. As a member of the Henry Mancini Institute String Quartet, she performed at National Sawdust in New York, on the Billings Symphony Sukin Series, and across the Adirondacks. Most recently, she joined Thirdspace Quartet for a full season in Boise. Rosie has appeared as a soloist with the Frost Symphony Orchestra, Billings Symphony, Great Falls Symphony, Glacier Symphony, and Battle Creek Symphony. And most recently, with the Henry Mancini Orchestra at Festival Napa Valley.

Alongside her classical career, Rosie started playing with the Billings Ceilidh Fiddlers at age 4, and had won two Montana State championships by the time she was 10. She’s been an instructor at the Montana Fiddle Camp, and has performed alongside musicians like Jeremy Kittel, Bobby Hicks, Nicole Yarling, and Gregg Field. Rosie has recorded for artists such as Alex Lacamoire and Kishi Bashi, including a Grammy award-winning album by John Daversa.

In her free time, you can find Rosie hiking and birding in her favorite places in Idaho and Montana.

Bradley Berg is a musicologist and pianist based in Boise, Idaho, known for combining rigorous historical research with accessible storytelling to bring overlooked musical histories to broader audiences. Since 2022, he has led pre-concert talks and written program notes for the Boise Philharmonic, and has contributed program notes to the Boise Baroque Orchestra since 2023. He is also the host of Boise Philharmonic Showcase on KBSU, a weekly radio program spotlighting the Boise Phil and curating classical music programs for listeners across southwestern Idaho.