Welcome to the Vaughan Williams Foundation – one of the foremost sources of funding for recent and contemporary music in the UK
The Vaughan Williams Foundation is a grant-giving charity which upholds the values and vision of the celebrated composer Ralph Vaughan Williams and his wife Ursula Vaughan Williams.
Our principal aims are to honour RVW’s desire to support his fellow composers, and to help make his own work widely accessible to the general public.
VWF was founded in 2022, 150 years after the composer’s birth, and brings together the two charities originally set up by Ralph (RVW Trust) and Ursula (Vaughan Williams Charitable Trust).
FUNDING
Postgraduate Composers
The 25/6 Vaughan Williams Scholarships of £8,000 each are open to applicants who demonstrate exceptional compositional talent and who are intending to make composition their professional career. Scholarships are awarded towards the costs of study of a taught Masters course or PhD in composition at UK universities or conservatoires. Applications are now open.
Congratulations to the seven composers who received Vaughan Williams Bursaries towards their Masters studies in composition in 2024.
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General Funding
VWF supports the work, performance and recording of British/Irish composers from the last 100 years; as well as projects which further the knowledge and understanding of the life and music of Ralph Vaughan Williams, and of the work of Ursula Vaughan Williams.
Applications will reopen on 1 February 2025. Ensembles, organisations and individuals are welcome to apply.
The Foundation also offers annual funding for postgraduate composition students.
RVW
Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958) is one of the greatest of British composers whose music, generosity and vision for community music making, continue to impact British musical life.
Find out more about the composer and explore our extensive archive of letters and photographs and catalogue of published works.
READ THE LATEST
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Over the last 40 years, 260 Vaughan Williams Bursaries have been awarded to help fund Masters Degrees in composition.
Find out more here: https://vaughanwilliamsfoundation.org/news/2024-vaughan-williams-bursaries/
NMC Recordings
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📀 OUT NOW – Freya Waley-Cohen: Spell Book 📀
We’re delighted to announce @freyawaleycohen’s debut album Spell Book is out now! ✨
Buy/Listen 👇👇👇
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The @RCMLondon in #London is global first for music and performing arts in the @TopUnis World University Rankings of 2024, 2023 and 2022.
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Vaughan Williams Foundation
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The VWF database includes transcripts of over 5,000 items of annotated correspondence relating to the lives of Ralph and Ursula Willliams. The letters are fully indexed and searchable, and can all be read online.
✉️ Find them here: https://vaughanwilliamsfoundation.org/discover/letters/
Vaughan Williams Foundation
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Ralph Vaughan Williams created important works in most major musical forms and genres, as well as writing music for film and stage.
He championed music-making in the community, and in his adventurous reimagining of the English Hymnal, changed the face of British Church music.
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We have compiled a great selection of links for anyone interested in learning more about the work and life of Ralph Vaughan Williams in more detail.
Find them here: https://vaughanwilliamsfoundation.org/discover/useful-links/
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“The son of a Gloucestershire vicar, Vaughan Williams was once described as a Christian Agnostic ” – Scottish, Catholic composer @jamesmacm considers the complex faith life of Ralph Vaughan Williams for the BBC’s Faith in Music.
📻 Listen here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0012s9d
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Vaughan William’s candid response to aspects of the second performance of his friend Gustav Holst’s First Choral Symphony.
✉️ Find Holst’s philosophical reply here: https://vaughanwilliamsfoundation.org/letter/letter-from-gustav-holst-to-ralph-vaughan-williams-3/
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Ursula Vaughan Willimas published seven collections of poems, wrote three novels and the libretti for two operas, as well as contributing words to nine of her husband’s major works.
Find out more about her life and work here: https://vaughanwilliamsfoundation.org/the-foundation/ursula-vaughan-williams/
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One for the philatelists among you!
This 9p stamp featuring Ralph Vaughan Williams was designed by Clive Abbot and issued in 1972.
THE LETTERS OF RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS
Featured Letter
Get to know the man and his music
RVW’s wide-ranging correspondence – with family, pupils, fellow composers, conductors and performers – paints an intriguing portrait of the man, as well as providing fascinating insights into his major preoccupations: musical, personal and political.
Our searchable database includes over 5000 annotated transcriptions of his correspondence all available to read online.
Letter of the Day
Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Cedric Glover
Letter No.: VWL2273
The White Gates,
Dorking, Surrey.
19th Septr., 1951.
Dear Cedric
I am sorry about the clashing of the Bach Choir and our Dorking performance. The fault is really mine because I had already made an engagement in Sheffield for the 22nd., which was the original date suggested, but something clashes whatever one does.
I do not know whether you suggest that we should revive Sullivan’s ‘cello Concerto at the Dorking Festival, but I am afraid we have neither time, opportunity nor wish to revive old and doubtful things on such an occasion.
I heard Bruneau’s Requiem years ago by the Bach Choir and thought it a perfectly dreadful work. I hope it will not be revived.
Yrs
RVW
(R. Vaughan Williams).
Cedric Glover, Esq.,
Rotherwood,
Holmbury St. Mary.
1. Alfred Bruneau. His Requiem was published in 1895. Glover was enthusiastic about the composer.
