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 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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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.
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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Royal Philharmonic Society
@royalphilsoc
The RPS was lucky to enjoy a musical relationship with Ralph Vaughan Williams in his lifetime, and we are pleased to announce @VWFndn’s support for the 2025 RPS Composers programme. We are grateful to donors, trusts, foundations, and RPS Members who make the programme possible.
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Vaughan Williams Foundation
@vwfndn
We wondered if this Mae West quote would resonate with any performers…
Vaughan Williams Foundation
@vwfndn
RVW’s correspondence with family, pupils, fellow composers, conductors and performers paints an intriguing portrait of the man. It also provides insights into his major preoccupations: musical, personal and political.
Search our database here 👇
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Vaughan Williams Foundation
@vwfndn
An extract from a letter from the Committee for the Promotion of New Music reveals more of Vaughan Williams’ great advocacy work.
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Vaughan Williams Foundation
@vwfndn
“Something dark and angry had been stirring in Vaughan Williams’ music throughout the 1920s and early ’30s. Even so, nobody was quite prepared for the volcanic eruption of the Fourth Symphony in 1934” – BBC @MusicMagazine on Vaughan Williams Symphony No 4.
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NMC Recordings
@nmcrecordings
We had a brilliant day at St Silas Kentish Town last week recording ‘Gravity’ by @Robert_Laidlow with the fabulous @PiattiQuartet
The recording session was made possible with support from our Core Funders and @doricoofficial
@VWFndn @ace_national
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Vaughan Williams Foundation
@vwfndn
This letter shows generosity of spirit…
RVW had refused a knighthood, saying that he always refused honours that “involved obligation to anyone in authority” but he accepted a higher Order of Merit in 1935, the year of this letter.
Andrew Strange Music
@asmartists
Onyx Brass’s recent world premiere recording of works by Britten, Vaughan Williams, Walton, John Adams and Gershwin (the last two in arrangements) with conductor John Wilson for Chandos will be launched at their Aldeburgh Festival concert on 29 June.
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Vaughan Williams Foundation
@vwfndn
The @HGchamber Spring Celebration Concert, marking 50 years since Arthur Bliss’s death and 40 years of Bryan Western conducting HSO, features music by Elgar, Bliss alongside Vaughan-Williams’ Symphony No 5, with cello soloist Lily Dai.
Details here: https://www.harrogatechamber.co.uk/business-hub/the-hso-spring-celebration-concert
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Vaughan Williams Foundation
@vwfndn
Sorry everyone – we are having a small problem with the website so if you are trying to get your application for the Vaughan Williams Scholarships today before the deadline please don’t panic – normal service should be resumed within the hour!!
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 Jean Stewart
Letter No.: VWL5157
From R. Vaughan Williams,
10, Hanover Terrace,
Regents Park,
London, N.W.1.
[1957?]
Dearest Jean
You said you wanted some of my illegible copy of Epi1 – Here some of it is
Love Uncle Ralph
1. i.e. Epithalamion, composed in 1957.
