MUSIC

Orchestral strike updates: The strike by the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, now in its ninth week, might be softening just a bit. The orchestra’s management has made a new offer--holding out a 30% raise for the ensemble’s 96 musicians. Musicians walked off the stage of Baltimore’s Meyerhoff Hall Sept. 23 after reaching an impasse in contract negotiations with management, primarily over salaries but also rehearsal scheduling and performance review practice. . . . And in Hartford, Conn., the members of the Hartford Symphony Orchestra have agreed to halt their two-month-long walkout long enough to play for the Hartford Ballet’s production of “The Nutcracker,” thereby averting a “devastating” financial blow to the dance company. Members of the orchestra are striking over demands for better salaries, working conditions, scheduling and health benefits.