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).
Funding
Vaughan Williams Scholarships
Applications are now open for the 2026 Vaughan Williams Scholarships.
4 scholarships of £8,000 each are awarded annually to postgraduate students of composition.
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.
Congratulations to our 2025 Vaughan Williams Scholars: Tom Burkhill, Lucy Holmes, André Faria Serra and Elliott Park.
Funding
Applications Open
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.
We welcome applications from ensembles, organisations and individuals.
Our new Trustees
Joining the Board
We are delighted to announce the appointment of Sam Wigglesworth, Harriet Wybor and Raymond Yiu as new Trustees, bringing with them a wealth of experience and a passion for music.
We are so grateful for their commitment to the Foundation and look forward to working with them to develop VWF for the future.
Find out more about the faces behind the VWF and our work.
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
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‘Fantasia on Christmas Carols’, composed by Ralph Vaughan Williams, performed here in 2019 by The Cambridge Singers, conducted by John Rutter.
Listen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHtB9ErINrw
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Vaughan Williams Foundation
@vwfndn
Ralph and Ursula Vaughan Williams set up the RVW Trust (to become the VWF in 2022) in 1956 to support young British composers, and assigned his performing rights income to it.
Find out more about Ursula’s life and work here: https://vaughanwilliamsfoundation.org/the-foundation/ursula-vaughan-williams/
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Vaughan Williams Foundation
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“I’ve always loved carols,” Vaughan Williams wrote to Cecil Sharp in 1911.
Despite being called “a cheerful agnostic”, the composer never lost his love for Christmas.
📻 Enjoy BBC Radio 3’s A Vaughan Williams Christmas, presented by Kate Molleson: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0h0q6pq
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Vaughan Williams Foundation
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A well-received gift! 🎄
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Vaughan Williams Foundation
@vwfndn
Applications are now open for our postgraduate composition study scholarships! ✒️
Grants of up to £8K each will be available to selected applicants who demonstrate exceptional talent, and who are planning a professional career in composition.
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Vaughan Williams Foundation
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Enjoy RVW’s The Lark Ascending, one of the UK’s favourite pieces of classical music, performed here by violinist Liya Petrova at this year’s BBC Proms.
Watch and listen here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m002h36z/bbc-proms-2025-8-vaughan-williams-the-lark-ascending
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Vaughan Williams Foundation
@vwfndn
Explore our collection of photographs relating to the life of composer Ralph Vaughan Williams via our website 💻
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Vaughan Williams Foundation
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This BBC Radio 3 programme was made in 2022 to mark the 150th anniversary of Ralph Vaughan Williams’ birth.
In it, Tom Service explores how community, sound and landscape shaped the composer’s music and his thinking.
📻 Listen here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m00175s4
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Vaughan Williams Foundation
@vwfndn
Do you have a favourite recording of Vaughan Williams’s Fantasia on Christmas Carols? 🎼
Explore @GramophoneMag’s selection here: https://www.gramophone.co.uk/features/article/vaughan-williams-s-fantasia-on-christmas-carols-which-recording-is-best
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Mark W.
@durhamwasp
The Lark Ascending by Ralph Vaughan Williams was first performed at Shirehampton Public Hall on 15th December 1920
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
Newspaper extract from The Times announcing the marriage of Vaughan Williams and Ursula Wood
Letter No.: VWL3920
Monday February 9, [1953]
FORTHCOMING MARRIAGES
[…]
DR. R. VAUGHAN WILLIAMS, O.M., AND MRS. U. WOOD
The marriage took place on Saturday in London of Dr. Ralph Vaughan Williams, O.M., and Mrs. Ursula Wood.
