STORY AND PHOTO BY KAREN BOSSICK

Grammy-winning pianist Gabriela Martinez will headline tonight’s concert as the Sun Valley Music Festival launches its 41st season.

Martinez will perform Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 20 in D Minor with the Festival Chamber Orchestra under the direction of Festival Conductor Alasdair Neale. The concerto is arguably Mozart’s most famous concerto, even accompanying the final scene of the 1984 film “Amadeus.”

The evening will also include Mozart’s “Haffner” symphony, with a final movement that Mozart wrote should go “as fast as possible.”

A fifth-generation female pianist, Martinez began her piano studies in Caracas with her mother before earning her Bachelor and Master of Music degrees at The Juilliard School. She has performed with more than a hundred orchestras around the world, in such venues as Carnegie Hall and at such festivals as Ravinia.

Other concerts this week:

Tuesday, July 29—The Festival Chamber Orchestra under the direction of Neale, will perform Carl Stamitz’s viola concerto in D Major, Op. 1. Principal Viola Adam Smyla will headline Stamitz’s viola concert.

Stephanie Childress, who returns for her third season as associate conductor, will then take over the baton to lead the orchestra in Joseph Haydyn’s Symphony No. 80 D Minor, a work that is considered stormy, light-hearted and even funny.

Thursday, July 31—Gabriela Martinez returns to play Brahms’ Piano Quartet in G Minor. Clara Schumann played the piano part at the piece’s premiere in 1861. It is said to have an incredible finale written in the gypsy style.

Martinez will also perform Caroline Shaw’s Chopin-inspired “Gustave le Gray.”

Friday, Aug. 1—The Festival Chamber Orchestra under the direction of Neale will perform Anna Clyne’s “Within Her Arms”—a tribute to the composer’s mother--and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 4 in B-Flat Major, which is considered light, airy and approachable.

The free concerts begin at 6:30 p.m. at the Sun Valley Pavilion. Pre-concert chats begin at 5:45 p.m. at the Lawn Paver Bar.

The Sun Valley Music Festival is the largest privately funded, admission-free classical music festival in the United States with four weeks of world-class performances in a beautiful outdoor alpine setting.

Some Pavilion seats may be reserved in advanced by donors, but admission-free seats are available to the public in the Pavilion and on the lawn where music lovers can watch the symphony on a jumbo screen while listening through state-of-the-art speakers skillfully posted around the lawn.

Renowned pianist Yuja Wang will headline the one concert that requires tickets on Wednesday, Aug. 6. The Gala Concert, a fundraiser for the festival, will feature Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concert No. 1 with the Sun Valley Music Festival Orchestra.

Tickets can be purchased at https://www.tix.com/ticket-sales/svmusicfestival/3977.