SAN DIEGO ENTERTAINMENT BRIEFS

Soviet conductor Vassili Sinaisky will make his American debut directing the San Diego Symphony on Feb. 16 and 18. Sinaisky, the only Soviet conductor to win the First Prize Gold Medal at the Von Karajan Competition in Berlin, replaces Valery Gergiev, who has been hospitalized, the symphony announced this week. Sinaisky, who is a conductor at the Bolshoi Opera Theatre, will conduct an all-Russian program featuring San Diego Symphony concertmaster Igor Gruppman in Glazunov’s Concerto in A Minor. Gruppman was announced as a substitute earlier this month for Russian virtuoso, Ilya Grubert, who also had to cancel.