Spectators heard the sound of an over 400-year-old viola as the Warren Chamber Music Festival rolls through the shire this week.

The New Zealand String Quartet's Gillian Ansell played the hand-crafted instrument in Warren at a sold-out opening concert on 1 May.

Performances are taking place over four days across Nevertire, Collie and Warren and include world-class musicians as well as Warren's very own SING community choir.

"The age of the wood, the lacquer, the design, it sounds like velvet," organiser and violinist Frances Evans said.

"There's a reason why 400-year-old instruments still exist and it's because they were truly exceptional from the beginning."

Instrument-maker Nicolò Amati crafted the viola in 1619 in Cremona in northern Italy.

Much of it's history remains a mystery, according to the New Zealand String Quartet's website, although a family crest carved into it indicates the influential Medici family likely commissioned it.

The family crest. The Medici family were a banking and political dynasty that held power in Florence and Tuscany in the mid-1000s.

The New Zealand-based Adam Foundation loans the viola to the quartet.

"I hope that the concerts celebrate what it is to have beautiful, artistic experiences in our incredibly scenic, sacred and special landscape in rural NSW," Ms Evans said.

"I really hope people feel inspired, and I hope that people feel expanded, both in their hearts and in their knowledge and in their experience."

The event began in 2021 and Ms Evans said at least 600 spectators have so far bought tickets across the four days this year.