Louis Langrée and The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra will be waiting and watching on Sunday (Jan. 28) to see whether they win their first Grammy Award together when the Grammys air live on CBS from Madison Square Garden in New York City. The 60th Grammy Awards airs from 7:30 p.m. to 11 p.m. on CBS, in the first Grammy telecast from New York in 15 years.

The orchestra is up for two Grammy Awards for the groundbreaking album, “Concertos for Orchestra,” recorded live in Music Hall (before the renovation). It is nominated in the “Best Orchestral Performance” category, as well as for “Best Contemporary Classical Composition” for Zhou Tian’s score on the album.

The orchestra records on its own Fanfare Cincinnati label.

Because the three Concertos for Orchestra on the album were recorded live in concert, the performances communicate a certain electricity.

“I’m proud to have ‘Best Orchestral Performance,’ because it was recorded live, as world premieres. We had no time to digest them,” said Langrée, backstage in his Music Hall office earlier this week. “This speaks about the level of the orchestra, but also about the mission and the meaning of it.

“Even if we don’t win it – of course, everybody would prefer to win it – it’s already a major recognition of what we are doing,” said the conductor. “Music is not in its ivory tower. It’s part of the world, it’s expression of life, and an orchestra is an ideal symbol of an ideal society.”

Because the classical music awards are given earlier in the day, Langrée could learn the news while he is conducting the orchestra during its 2 p.m. concert at Music Hall on Sunday. If it is indeed a Grammy, he says he will get to New York in time for the after-party.

In addition, Cincinnati native Fred Hersch, a sensational jazz pianist and composer, is nominated – twice — for “Best Jazz Instrumental Album” for his latest album, “Open Book,” a lush, ravishing collection of solo piano improvisations. His tune “Whisper Not” on the same album is also nominated for “Best Improvised Jazz Solo.”

Hersch, who has an honorary doctorate from Northern Kentucky University, has been nominated 12 times since 1993 in three categories: “Best Jazz Instrumental Performance,” “Best Instrumental Composition” and “Best Improvised Jazz Solo.” Since his recovery from a two-month coma in 2008, he’s had nine nominations.

Finally, The National, the band whose members grew up in Cincinnati, is up for “Best Alternative Music Album” for “Sleep Well Beast.” Its members include brothers Bryce and Aaron Dessner, who have crossed into classical music in several MusicNOW collaborations with the Cincinnati Symphony.

Thumbnail history of CSO, Pops and Grammy Awards

The Cincinnati Symphony has never won a Grammy for “Best Orchestral Performance.” However, its 2008 Mussorgsky disc won a Grammy Award for “Best Surround Sound.”

In 2002, the CSO’s “Music of Turina and Debussy,” led by Jesus López-Cobos, was nominated for a Grammy Award for “Best Orchestral Performance.”

In addition, producer Elaine Martone received a nomination for Producer of the Year for a body of work that included the CSO’s “Hallowed Ground.” That album featured a live recording of Maya Angelou as narrator in Aaron Copland’s “Lincoln Portrait” in 2013.

The Cincinnati Pops has sold 10 million recordings worldwide on Telarc (which stopped recording orchestras in 2009). In 1997, the Pops album  “Copland: Music of America,” conducted by Erich Kunzel, won a Grammy for “Best Engineered Album, Classical.”

Four other Pops recordings have been nominated for Grammy Awards.

See the complete Grammy nominations list here.