For someone who has just flown into Australia from Dusseldorf and caught a train from Sydney to Orange, the Dutch violist Emile Cantor is sounding remarkably chipper.

“The weather here certainly helps,” he says, stepping out of rehearsal for the first of a series of regional concerts with Acacia Quartet. “It is beautiful here at this time of year. Two days of sunshine is all I need to acclimatise!”

Cantor and old friend and cellist Laurentiu Sbarcea have flown in to beef-up the Acacia foursome into a string sextet that will tour the Riverina and South-West NSW with two beloved works for strings – Dvořák’s String Sextet in A major, Op. 48, composed in 1878, and Brahms’ String Sextet No. 2, Op. 36, written some 15 years prior. These pieces bookend the world premiere of a new work from Australian composer Lyle Chan.

Acacia Quartet’s Anna Martin-Scrase with Emile Cantor and Laurentiu Sbarcea. Photo © Acacia Quartet

“This is my fourth trip to Australia, but Laurentiu hasn’t been here since he was 17,” says Cantor. “I don’t know if he minds me telling this, but he was here as a kid,...