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.
Applications for 2026 will open in December 2025
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
We support work furthering the knowledge and understanding of the life and music of Ralph Vaughan Williams, and of the work of Ursula Vaughan Williams.
Grant applications are now open – more details are available via our website, link in bio.
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Vaughan Williams Foundation
@vwfndn
Ralph Vaughan Williams: folk music, the English countryside, and moments of transcendent beauty…
Terry Blain explores the life, times and works of Ralph Vaughan Williams – ‘the grand old man of British music’ – for BBC Music Magazine.
📖 👉 https://www.classical-music.com/features/composers/ralph-vaughan-williams
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Sheffield Cathedral
@sheffcath
Lose yourself in the beauty of #Vivaldi’s Four Seasons and Vaughan Williams’ The Lark Ascending, brought to life by candlelight at #SheffieldCathedral.
📅 14 June
🕖 Doors 6.45pm
🎟️ Tickets selling fast: http://www.sheffieldcathedral.org/whats-on
#Sheffield #SheffieldIsSuper
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Vaughan Williams Foundation
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Ursula Vaughan Williams – “a high-heeled and a high-souled woman” (Ralph Vaughan Williams).
RVW’s second wife, Ursula, was an artist in her own right, publishing seven collections of poems, among other works.
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Vaughan Williams Foundation
@vwfndn
What would RVW think of Britain’s relationship with Europe today? What a fascinating conversation that would make…
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Vaughan Williams Foundation
@vwfndn
The artist Tori Amos on working with an orchestra 🎼
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Vaughan Williams Foundation
@vwfndn
The principal aims of the Vaughan Williams Foundation are to honour RVW’s desire to support his fellow composers and to make his own work widely accessible to the general public.
VWF general funding applications open today!
💻 Details via our website – link in bio
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Vaughan Williams Foundation
@vwfndn
Sara Mohr-Pietsch hosts BBC Radio 3’s ‘Music Map’ – a programme about the history and legacy of Vaughan Williams’ The Lark Ascending.
📻 Available via BBC Sounds 👇
Samantha Crawford
@s_h_crawford
Looking forward to performing a new song recital, Freedom Cries Out, telling stories of displaced people and refugees.
The programme touches on themes of Homeland, Exile, War, Family, Hope and New Beginnings.
➡️7.30 p.m. on 19. June @HolySepulchreUK
🎫: https://tinyurl.com/Freedom-Cries-Out
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Vaughan Williams Foundation
@vwfndn
VWF funding applications open soon!
The next deadlines are:
🎶Wednesday, September 3, 2025 (for work taking place from December 2025 onwards)
🎶Monday, January 5, 2026
🎶Friday, May 1, 2026
Applications open June 2.
💻 Details via our website
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 Peter Montgomery
Letter No.: VWL4854
From R. Vaughan Williams,
The White Gates,
Westcott Road,
Dorking.
[late 1930s]
Dear Peter
I have written to all the people whose names you gave me – Thankyou so much for your help
Yrs
RVW
