O.C. Philharmonic Celebration to Mark Mozart’s Death : Music: The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center will perform works for oboe and strings at the Irvine Barclay Theatre.

Unless you have been off the planet the last six months, you must know that Mozart died in 1791. Practically every musical organization is noting the fact with some sort of observance this season, not that Mozart’s music was ever in short supply.

Certainly the bicentennial has not been lost on Fred Sherry. He is, after all, artistic director of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and Lincoln Center is the prime mover in the Gargantuan effort to present every note Mozart ever wrote in performance in New York over the next 18 months.

“It seems like it’s going great all over,” Sherry reports, “and the Chamber Music Society will be doing its part.”

First, though, the Chamber Music Society will be helping the Orange County Philharmonic Society with its Mozart Celebration. A touring contingent, led by Sherry, is at the Irvine Barclay Theatre tonight with a program of music for oboe and strings.

Sherry has no reservations about celebrating Mozart’s death .

“Many people have questioned that, but it’s just a historical reason, and if anybody deserves this kind of celebration, it’s Mozart. You’re celebrating the music, after all, not the death.”

The music, in this case, is the Quartet in F for oboe and strings, K. 370, and the Divertimento in E-flat for string trio, K. 563. Matched with these Mozart compositions are Oliver Knussen’s “Cantata for Oboe and String Trio” and Toru Takemitsu’s “Entre-temps” for oboe and string quartet.

The Chamber Music Society has a long and honorable history of attention to contemporary music, but taking some of it on the road is a relatively new focus. Sherry, who started playing as a guest cellist with the society in the late ‘70s, is in his second active season as director, having succeeded founder Charles Wadsworth.

“There has to be a difference between us,” Sherry says. “Musicians have distinct tastes. I like to take new pieces on the road.”

Knussen is composer-in-residence for the society this season, and although it seems perverse to label an instrumental piece a “cantata,” Sherry says it makes sense in this case.

“It’s about a 10-minute work, which divides up into smaller sections, and the oboe actually does sing like a voice. It also tells a story as a cantata should, but not in a programmatic way.”

Given this combination of instruments, the Takemitsu piece was almost an inevitable choice.

“I feel that there are some composers who are so strong that they have become classics, even though they are still alive. Takemitsu certainly is one of those,” Sherry explains.

This kind of program is characteristic of Sherry.

“I prefer to balance the classics with more contemporary music,” he says. “Mozart is like a dream for me because his music makes the pieces around it sound good. Mozart sheds great light on other composers.”

The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center was established in 1969 as the resident ensemble for Alice Tully Hall, a 1,000-seat theater at Lincoln Center.

The musicians on this tour, which began last week in Calgary, are violinists Ida and Ani Kavafian, violist Paul Neubauer, oboist Stephen Taylor and cellist Sherry.