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
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.
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.
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
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 Geoffrey Keynes to Edwin Evans
Letter No.: VWL883
11 Arkwright Road
Hampstead
London N.W.3
16.xii.30.
Dear Mr. Evans,
I have heard from Dr. Vaughan Williams, who wishes me to write direct to you about the question of the Job Ballet. I should, of course, be very glad indeed if the Camargo Society should find it practicable to perform it, either in connection with the Salzburg Festival or otherwise. Dr. Vaughan Williams naturally has something to say about the music, and he has a complex about the word “ballet”, for which you would not doubt be willing to substitute “masque”.
The only stipulation I should wish to make would be
(a) that Miss Ninette de Valois should be in charge of the production as choreographer.
(b) that the scenery shall be adequate.
As the setts are being based on Blake’s designs, there will need to be at least four back scenes, and in this connection I am anxious to know where the Oxford performance, if it takes place, is likely to be held, and the size of the stage. One back scene has already been painted, but it was done with a view to the Old Vic, and is rather large.
What are the funds available if it is done at Oxford? Presumably the orchestra will be no difficulty there. The scenes will cost something, but I will have £32 available which could be spent on them, £18 having been used for the scene already painted. There will be a dozen masks or more to be made, but neither these nor the cost of the costumes should be a serious expense as I understand from Miss de Valois.
Yours truly,
Geoffrey Keynes
