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 through funding for performances and recordings, 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).

THE FOUNDATION

Funding

Vaughan Williams Scholarships


We are pleased to announce that four scholarships of £8,000 each have been awarded to postgraduate students of composition.

Congratulations to our 2026 Vaughan Williams Scholars: Patrick Gorry, Scarlett Henderson, Donnchadh Mac Aodha and Dominic Wright.

For more than 40 years Vaughan Williams funding has been awarded to support postgraduate study in composition. The 270 previous recipients have included names such as Julian Anderson, Christian Alexander, Anna Meredith, Graham Fitkin, Larry Goves, Gavin Higgins, Hannah Kendall and Daniel Kidane.


FIND OUT MORE

Funding

Applications

Since 2023 we have awarded over £1.2 million to composer projects. Composers are at the heart of what we do. VWF offers three annual funding rounds towards:

the performance, commission and recording of music by British and Irish composers active in the last 100 years, and/or

work which furthers the knowledge and understanding of the life and work of Ralph Vaughan Williams, and of Ursula Vaughan Williams.

Applications are currently open. We welcome applications from ensembles, organisations and individuals.

FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES

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.

DISCOVER

READ THE LATEST

Vaughan Williams Foundation

A weekend listen! RVW was a lifelong devotee of the poet Walt Whitman, carrying a volume of his work to WWI and setting his words across several decades. Laura Barton explores what it was about Whitman’s work that so appealed to the composer. 📻 👇

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Vaughan Williams Foundation

Did you know that the VWF not only supports the music of our founder but, at his request, that the majority of our funding goes to help other composers? Find out what grants are available, how much they are worth and how to apply for them here: vaughanwilliamsfoundation.org/funding/how-…

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Vaughan Williams Foundation

See and hear one of RVW's most famous and well-loved works, The Lark Ascending, performed by candlelight by London Concertante. Details of dates and venues, including Leeds, Bristol and Norwich, here: londonconcertante.com/series/vival…

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Vaughan Williams Foundation

Michael Kennedy, describing a stay in the Vaughan Williams' household 🐾

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Vaughan Williams Foundation

This stained glass window, created by artist Thomas Denny, suggests Vaughan Williams’ life pilgrimage – of the doubts, hopes and revelations of his life and his music. The window at All Saints Church at Down Ampney commemorates the composer who was born at the rectory there in 1872.

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Vaughan Williams Foundation

For more than 40 years, Vaughan Williams funding has been awarded to support postgraduate study in composition. Each student receives a scholarship of £8,000 towards their studies in 2026-7. Find out more about this year's Vaughan Williams Scholars here 👇

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Vaughan Williams Foundation

For all the trombone players out there! 👏

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Vaughan Williams Foundation

The tape is being sold as part of a Heritage Auction sale of space memorabilia being held in Dallas on July 23, with bids starting at $600. Listen to Hodie here ⬇️

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Vaughan Williams Foundation

This cassette tape is proof that the music of Vaughan Williams has been heard in space! 🌕 This recording of Hodie, composed by RVW, belonged to mission lunar module pilot Rusty Schweickart, who took it with him aboard Apollo 9 – a 10-day orbital mission in 1969. 🧵1/2

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Vaughan Williams Foundation

Hear Morley College's recording of Before The Mirror – a previously unknown work by Ralph Vaughan Williams. The piano is played by Dimitris Karydis, head of classical music, and it is sung by Marianna Suri, curriculum leader for vocal studies at the college.

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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.

BROWSE THE LETTERS

Letter of the Day

Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Christopher le Fleming

Letter No.: VWL4132

13 Cheyne Walk
S.W.3

Sunday, [January, ?1927]

Sunday
Dear Mr. Le Fleming
Saturday will suit me admirably.  I wonder if it would be possible to get the old man earlier in the afternoon i.e. to take half a day off if we made it up to him?  I have tried this before with success.  I could then come down by an earlier train than 12.30 and have more time.
I have just telephoned the substance of your letter to Miss Maud Karpeles, the Secretary of the English Folk Dance Society and she is very anxious to come, though I warned her not to expect too much.  She is very much interested in folk song as well as folk-dance and has had some experience in noting them and so would therefore be very useful in helping us.
I cannot help thinking that it would be a mistake to have too large an audience for the old gentleman – it might put him off and I think Miss Karpeles, you & I might then be able to note the songs between us.  After all, if the singer has anything interesting to give us this will only be a preliminary visit.
It is most kind of you to offer to put us up but are you sure this is quite convenient?  Also I should have to leave first thing on Sunday morning so would it not be better for you if we went back on Saturday night?  I see there is a late train from Salisbury which does not appear to be very far off & perhaps we should be able to hire a car to take us there.  It is splendid of you to have arranged all this.
yours sincerely
R Vaughan Williams1

1.  Signed by VW.

His music continues to inspire us. Its incredible breadth of style and outlook seems especially important in our polarised times.

CHRISTOPHER GLYNN, artistic director, Ryedale Festival

Among his acts were countless kindnesses, known only to himself and the persons concerned. He gave continuous encouragement to younger men. He had the dignified humility of a great man, and was utterly unself-seeking.

SIR ARTHUR BLISS, conductor

I cannot stress enough how important this organisation’s work is, what a profound difference it is making, and how it has enabled so many to develop creatively and give new work a platform. Vaughan Williams himself would surely be so proud of this legacy. 

ZOE MARTLEW, composer and cellist

It is necessary to know facts, but music will enable you to see past facts to the very essence of things in a way which science cannot do. The arts are the means by which we can look through the magic casements and see what lies beyond. 

RVW, letter to the children of Swaffham Primary School, 1958