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
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.
Vaughan Williams Scholarships
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 four new Vaughan Williams Scholars: Tom Burkhill, Lucy Holmes, André Faria Serra and Elliott Park.
The Vaughan Williams Scholarships of £8,000 each are awarded annually to postgraduate students of composition.
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
John Quinn
@jqgl
A fascinating exploration of music linked to hymns by Vaughan Williams and others. @DulwichChoral #WilliamVann @JamesOrford @AlbionRecords @RVWSociety My review for @MusicWebInt is at
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Vaughan Williams Foundation
@vwfndn
This is fun!
Explore this first-day cover of stamps issued by the British Post Office commemorating General Anniversaries in 1972 and featuring the centenary of the birth of composer Ralph Vaughan Williams.
🔎 Take a closer look here: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/W_EPH-ME-1874
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Vaughan Williams Foundation
@vwfndn
The Vaughan Williams Foundation has three annual deadlines for general funding applications – the next is January 5, 2026. Details via our website 💻
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Vaughan Williams Foundation
@vwfndn
RVWs’ second wife, Ursula, was a poet, writer, biographer and vital support to the composer in the years leading to his death. Her generosity paved the way for the creation of the Vaughan Williams Foundation.
Find out more about her life & work here: https://vaughanwilliamsfoundation.org/the-foundation/ursula-vaughan-williams/
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Vaughan Williams Foundation
@vwfndn
As we move into December, wintery music feels like a good fit ❄️
Vaughan Williams’ Sinfonia Antartica began as film music for Scott of the Antarctic, then grew into one of the 20th century’s most haunting symphonies – complete with wind machine, wordless chorus, and epic scale.
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Vaughan Williams Foundation
@vwfndn
“Vaughan Williams was more of a quiet revolutionary than he is often given credit for…”
@MusicWebInt reviews Mantegna – Hymnody and beyond, recorded by Dulwich Choral Society; London Mozart Players / William Vann and organist James Orford at St Mildred’s Church in Addiscombe.
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Hastings Philharmonic Orchestra
@hastingsphil
SATURDAY!
Join us @ChChStLeonards for an evening of atmospheric choral music, performed by candlelight. Herald the beginning of Advent with this calming performance of music by Britten, Pinkham, Lauridsen, Whitacre & Vaughan Williams.
Saturday 6 Dec, 7pm
https://www.hastingsphilorchestra.co.uk/6th-december-25
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Vaughan Williams Foundation
@vwfndn
Vaughan Williams writes on how folk music is knitted into culture, making its influence unavoidable.
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Ailsa Dixon Composer
@musicailsadixon
Warm thanks @VWFndn for their generous support of 2026 concerts of Ailsa Dixon’s chamber music and quartet songs including this one 👇@stgeorgesbris @VilliersQuartet @LucyCoxSoprano
Delighted and grateful for this share in RVW’s wonderful legacy
Ipswich Symphony Orchestra
@iosoctweet
Our terrific conductor, Adam Gatehouse, directed our dedicated and enthusiastic musicians, in a programme that included Vaughan Williams Symphony No 5, and we are indebted to the Vaughan Williams Foundation @VWFndn for their financial support. 💐
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 Imogen Holst
Letter No.: VWL2279
The White Gates,
Dorking.
Oct 16 [1951]
Dearest Imogen
Thank you for remembering my birthday.
I do hope you will find out all about the augmented second.1
All love
Uncle Ralph
1. Imogen Holst had left Dartington Hall in the summer and was planning a study tour in the Mediterranean in early 1952. At the beginning of 1951 she had spent two months in India studying Indian classical music and its intervals and was now to follow that up with the study of eastern Mediterranean music. In the event her money was stolen in Rome and she was unable to travel any further east.
