PERFORMING ARTS : The Marathon Man, Oboe Division : Allan Vogel takes the multiplicity of gigs, roles and locales of his musical life in stride even as he branches out as a solo artist.

For anyone who frequents the local classical music scene, certain faces reappear often enough, and in varied enough circumstances, to become part of the landscape. Take the friendly, bearded face of Allan Vogel, the premier oboist in town. Vogel seems to have an everywhere-at-once presence, both in the fabric of ensembles and center stage.

We’ve seen him as the stalwart principal oboist with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra for two decades (and front and left on the group panel of the LACO mural visible from the Harbor Freeway). We’ve seen him with the La Jolla Chamber Music Festival, the Music Center Opera Orchestra, and performing Bach at festivals up and down the West Coast. By day, he teaches at both the progressive outpost of CalArts--of which he is a founding faculty member--and the more establishment USC. He has been hitting the road, too, as guest principal of the Boston Symphony and with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center in New York.

Perhaps most significantly, Vogel has been increasingly in demand as a soloist, as he will be when he performs the Vaughan Williams Concerto for Oboe and Strings with the LACO at Cal State Northridge, the Irvine Barclay Theatre and Glendale’s Alex Theatre next weekend. (The first concert will kick off the LACO’s “Neighborhood Concerts” series.)

Vogel lives in quasi-rural semi-splendor in a house in Newhall, with his wife, Janice Tipton, a flutist, and two regal cats, Patsy and Mo. Upon arrival, the visitor finds Vogel cradling a cordless phone while demonstrating a passage on his oboe to a pianist on the line, and managing an affable greeting between breaths. Even out of concert attire, he looks like someone we’ve known for years.

On one wall in his study, Vogel has a vertical row of photographs of his teachers--Robert Bloom at Yale; Lothar Koch, with whom he studied in Berlin on a Fulbright Fellowship, and oboists Fernand Gillet and Josef Marx. On another wall, a framed, mock gold record commemorates Vogel’s 20th anniversary with the LACO.

Vogel takes the multiplicity of gigs, roles and locales of his musical life in stride. “One thing helps the other,” he says. “If I’m working on doing a virtuoso oboe concerto well, then I go into the orchestra and it seems easier. You’re in shape. If you run a marathon or something, it’s much easier for you to run around the block.”

Besides, he says, “it certainly makes life more interesting than if I was only doing one thing.”

He considers himself quite lucky to have been able to mix solo and orchestral work. “You get involved in getting orchestral jobs . . . because basically orchestra playing is so much more steady.”

He also considers himself lucky to have found his instrumental niche. “It’s luck to want to work, because you couldn’t force yourself your whole life. I enjoy practicing. The oboe can be a struggle, but it’s not as much as it used to be. It’s not like climbing Mt. Everest every day. I enjoy it more just because I play better and I can do things more consistently.”

Vogel’s first exposure to his instrument-of-choice came in adolescence, when he heard his older brother playing the oboe part to “Swan Lake.” “It struck something in me, and I really became obsessed on the spot.”

A native New Yorker, Vogel went to the High School of Music and Art, where he started out concentrating on voice. “My voice hadn’t quite changed yet,” he says. “By the time my voice changed, I was already into the oboe. I’ve been fanatical about the oboe ever since. I fell in love with the sound of it, as many people do. I liked playing it, too, physically. I have the right personality for it, kind of tenacious. That’s what the oboe takes.”

Still, when he went to college, Vogel didn’t single-mindedly pursue music. Initially, he studied English literature at Harvard. “It gave me more time to practice than being a music major,” he laughed. Oboe studies in earnest starting in graduate school at Yale. Following further studies in Berlin with Koch, Vogel headed out west in the early ‘70s to begin a career in teaching, taking a position at the newly opened Cal Arts.

In effect, Vogel’s career as a soloist began when he joined the chamber orchestra, and he has been a soloist many times under that group’s various maestros. Still, Vogel admits, “I never had any particular career aspirations as a soloist. If I did, I wouldn’t spend so much time teaching. I’m surprised that my playing career has gotten as far as it has with all the teaching I do. It’s extremely rewarding, and I have great students.”

As a veteran of the LACO, Vogel knows about the vicissitudes in the life of the modern orchestra. For all the respect the LACO has earned, it has verged on financial ruin three times during the time Vogel has been involved, including a near-death experience two years ago.

“Just because it’s great doesn’t mean it couldn’t fold,” Vogel says.

LACO survived with a reduced season, which means, says Vogel, that the musicians actually appreciate it now more than ever. “When you’re in a group that plays day in and day out, all the time, it’s harder to have a feeling of excitement. For us, [LACO performances are] always special.”

This weekend’s programs, guest conducted by Britain’s Richard Hickox, will include Handel, Mozart, Purcell and Warlock, but the solo spotlight goes to Vogel. As Vogel notes, Vaughan Williams’ Concerto was written in 1944, the year the oboist was born.

At the time it was written, Vogel explains, “they were bombing London and all hell was breaking loose. In the first movement, a pastorale, it’s kind of wistful time, thinking about the English countryside. It’s a beautifully crafted piece. The second movement is very short and jolly. The last movement is more stream of consciousness, with a disturbed feeling. It goes through many changes of mood. It’s a wonderful piece and it’s not played that much, although it’s recorded a lot.”

Of late, Vogel has added yet another item to his resume: solo recording. He has appeared on numerous CDs in ensembles, but now feels that it’s time to document his solo work. He arranged to make a recording with pianist and fellow CalArts faculty member Bryan Pezzone, and is in the process of editing that session. A program of Baroque music will be recorded this month for the Delos label, and features Tipton on flute.

Vogel’s recording imperative has partly to do with a personal revelation. “I don’t know if I’m going to get better,” he says, matter-of-factly. “I’ve been working very hard at this my whole life. I’m at my peak in a way, thus far. I know it, because I play my old etudes, and I can tell. I feel it’s a good time.”

Vogel’s interest in solo recording also relates to his desire to spread the gospel of oboe repertory. “The repertoire would justify a lot more solo oboe playing than is done, at least in this country. If you eliminate the piano and the violin, I would say we have as good a repertoire as any other instrument.” Vogel reels off a short list of worthy oboe works, including pieces by Bach, Handel, Telemann, Vivaldi, Mozart and, in the modern era, Strauss, Vaughan Williams and Martinu.

“There are probably 20 good pieces in the literature, and that’s enough for someone to play if that’s all they wanted to do.”

Vogel particularly champions Bach, and not just for oboists. He plays regularly at the Bach Festival in Eugene, Ore., and periodically with the annual Los Angeles Bach Festival at the First Congregational Church.

“There needs to be more Bach in Los Angeles, if you ask me,” he comments. “The things I’m drawn to, more and more, are Bach cantatas. Even with the less-famous ones, there are arias there that would blow your mind if you heard them once. Sometimes I get the feeling that it would be the best therapy for people. You could be a doctor and prescribe arias for particular problems.”

Vogel has performed a fair amount of music from this century, including a new concerto by Henry Lazaroff, which Vogel will record next year. But he also advocates looking for the “new” in history.

“At CalArts, there is always this cry of ‘new music, new music . . .’ but I’m always saying, ‘Well, if there’s a Mozart piece you haven’t heard or a Bach cantata that maybe you’ll never hear, that’s also new.’ It’s like second-hand clothes.”

In the face of an ever-busier schedule, Vogel tries not to become complacent about the oboe, which can present itself to musicians as “a series of puzzles sometimes, technical puzzles that you figure out. It’s amazing how you continue learning little things about the instrument every day, things that help you play it with more ease.

“Of course, as you play music, new pieces and other pieces, you become a better musician--if you’re serious and reflective.”

* Allan Vogel will perform Vaughan Williams’ Concerto for Oboe and Strings with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra on Friday at the Performing Arts Center, Cal State Northridge, 18111 Nordhoff St., Northridge, at 8 p.m., $25 (senior citizen and student discounts available), (213) 622-7001; on Saturday , at the Irvine Barclay Theatre, UC Irvine, 8 p.m., $22-$35, (714) 854-4646; and next Sunday at the Alex Theatre, 216 N. Brand Blvd., Glendale, 7:30 p.m., $10-$36 (senior citizen and student discounts available), (213) 622-7001. The program, conducted by Richard Hickox, will also include Handel’s Concerto Grosso, Opus 3, No. 2; Purcell’s Chacony; the “Capriol” Suite, by Warlock; and Mozart’s Symphony No. 29.