Missouri Classical Music News and Notes

Story of the year (local): Changes at the top. Opera Theatre of St. Louis head Charles MacKay will go to Santa Fe Opera. Add to that James Robinson's coming as artistic director at the company (taking the place of the late Colin Graham) and Timothy O'Leary's advent as executive director, and we're looking at major institutional change. At the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, Randy Adams stepped down as president and Fred Bronstein, now of Dallas, has been hired to take his place.

Person of the year: Symphony board chairwoman Cindy Brinkley, who quietly negotiated a two-year contract extension — with major help from musicians President Brad Buckley and others — a full year before the old one expired, to provide stability and help the orchestra find a new president at a crucial time. Brinkley's leadership has been consistently self-effacing and very effective.