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).
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 are now open. Ensembles, organisations and individuals are welcome to apply.
The Foundation also offers annual funding for postgraduate composition students.
FUNDING
Postgraduate Composers
The 25/6 Vaughan Williams Scholarships of £8,000 each will be awarded 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.
Congratulations to the seven composers who received Vaughan Williams Bursaries towards their Masters studies in composition in 2024.
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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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Vaughan Williams Foundation
@vwfndn
RVW was asked to compose music for a satirical production of The Wasps, by the Cambridge Greek Play Committee of Cambridge University in 1909.
In 2005 @the_halle recorded the complete incidental music, making it widely available for the first time.
📻 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLSIfGgKhDo
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Vaughan Williams Foundation
@vwfndn
The Vaughan Williams Memorial Library is calling for papers for a two-day Traditional Tunes and Popular Airs conference, on November 8 & 9.
Details here: https://www.efdss.org/about-us/what-we-do/news/15054-traditional-tunes-and-popular-airs-call-for-papers
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NMC Recordings
@nmcrecordings
📀OUT NOW: Clare O’Connell ‘Light Flowing’
Light Flowing is an album of works for cello performed by Clare O’Connell as part of NMC’s Artist Series.
🔗Buy/stream: https://nmcrecs.lnk.to/ClareOconnellLightFlowing
Thanks to @ace_national @PRSFoundation @VWFndn, Hinrichsen Foundation & The Delius Trust
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Vaughan Williams Foundation
@vwfndn
📣 Funding deadline approaching!
The VWF supports the advancement of the knowledge, understanding and appreciation of the life and music of Ralph Vaughan Williams, and of the work of Ursula Vaughan Williams.
The next deadline for general funding applications is May 1!
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London Youth Choirs
@lonyouthchoirs
LYC is thrilled to announce that we will be in the First Night of the @bbcproms 2025!
We will be performing ‘Sancta civitas’ by Vaughan Williams, alongside @BBCSingers, @BBCSO and soloists @SingCasparSingh and @GeraldFinley, conducted by Sakari Oramo 🤩
http://bbc.co.uk/proms
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Vaughan Williams Foundation
@vwfndn
✉️ Quite the fan mail here!
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Vaughan Williams Foundation
@vwfndn
Applications are open for the VWF-funded Cheltenham Music Festival early-career composers’ programme.
Relaunched for the @cheltfestivals 80th anniversary, the 5-day Composer Academy will be in Gloucestershire, during the festival in July.
Details: https://www.cheltenhamfestivals.org/composer-academy
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Vaughan Williams Foundation
@vwfndn
With RVW’s copyrights divided between different publishing houses, it can be hard to locate any particular score or set of parts to perform. Our searchable catalogue lists the publisher of each piece and guides you towards more information.
Find it here: https://vaughanwilliamsfoundation.org/discover/published-works/
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Vaughan Williams Foundation
@vwfndn
A great opportunity!
Deal Music & Arts are looking for a new executive director to provide strategic leadership and oversight to deliver DMA’s mission and objectives.
Location: Deal, Kent (hybrid)
Details here: https://dealmusicandarts.com/jobs/
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Vaughan Williams Foundation
@vwfndn
The VWF invites funding applications from ensembles, organisations and individuals in two key areas:
🎶 Support for the music of Composers of the last 100 years
🎶 Support of the Work of Ralph and Ursula Vaughan Williams
Our next funding deadline is coming up on May 1.
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 Thorpe Davie
Letter No.: VWL2797
From R. Vaughan Williams,
10, Hanover Terrace,
Regents Park,
London, N.W.1.
March 2nd 1954.
Dear Cedric,
That recording of Tudor Portraits is horrible: that screeching woman outrageous, and the tempi, most of them, wrong. I knew nothing about it till I received the record. But I have to admit that I have marked one or two optional cuts in Jane Scroop, but not, so far as I can remember, elsewhere. Do use it to light your fire. I am glad you still like the work. And also that Bruno still approves of me. We are doing it at Dorking on April 30th, when, at all events, the tempi will be correct and there will be no cuts.
Love from both of us to Bruno and you,
Uncle Ralph
