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
@vwfndn
How about some RVW by candlelight? 🕯️
London Concertante will perform The Lark Ascending, with Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, at cathedrals across Ireland and the UK throughout 2026, starting with Rochester Cathedral on March 27.
Details and 🎫 via the London Concertante website
Vaughan Williams Foundation
@vwfndn
Discover a wealth of resources and information relating to the life and works of Ralph Vaughan Williams via our website.
Leith Hill Festival
@leithhillfest
Booking now open for our Spring Concert and 2026 Festival. Full details here https://www.dorkinghalls.co.uk/search-results?keywords=leith%20hill
Vaughan Williams Foundation
@vwfndn
We love this picture of RVW and Holst setting off on a trek – makes us think of sunny summer days! ☀️
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Clásica FM
@clasicafmradio
🔊 Carlos Iribarren ha seleccionado 4 movimientos de sendas primeras sinfonías compuestas por autores británicos. Sus apellidos no son tan conocidos como los de Elgar, Vaughan Williams o Britten pero es música de mucho nivel.
🎧 Escucha aquí el podcast: https://clasicafmradio.es/podcasts/hoy-toca/primeras-sinfonias-britanicas-6/
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Vaughan Williams Foundation
@vwfndn
The Vaughan Williams Foundation offers a number of funding opportunities.
Find out more via our website: https://vaughanwilliamsfoundation.org/funding/
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Vaughan Williams Foundation
@vwfndn
Seeking contact details for Vaughan Williams’ principal publishers?
Find everything you need here: https://vaughanwilliamsfoundation.org/discover/published-works/publishers/
NoMadMusic
@nomadmusicnmm
New Release 💿 « Landscapes » dedicated to Vaughan Williams poetic & magnificent music.
With Cyrille Dubois, Anne Le Bozec, Emeline Concé, Louise Desjardins, Louis, Rodde, Julien Dieudegard & Baptiste Gibier.
Thanks to @VWFndn for its support
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Vaughan Williams Foundation
@vwfndn
This Sunday in Cheltenham!
English Symphony Orchestra Residency: Elgar, Vaughan Williams & Sawyers, featuring Vaughan Williams: Overture to The Wasps.
Conductor: Kenneth Woods
Violin: Zoe Byers
3pm, Cheltenham Town Hall. Details here: https://eso.co.uk/eso-cheltenham-residency/
Vaughan Williams Foundation
@vwfndn
The Vaughan Williams Foundation has a wealth of resources relating to the life and works of the composer Ralph Vaughan Williams.
💻 Discover them 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 Kenneth Wright (BBC)
Letter No.: VWL1466
From R. Vaughan Williams,
The White Gates,
Westcott Road,
Dorking.
Oct 31 [1940]
Dear Mr. Wright
Many thanks for your letter.
I am so sorry to hear you have been ill. I hope Foss told you of a provisional Ctee meeting1 for Tuesday Nov 19 at 12. That is to say it will be called if sufficient new names have come in, and this is not I think likely as the Home Office now tell me that they are not going to send me names. So please pencil the date. You will be told either way. Meanwhile can you find out anything about Manuel Joubert singer and linguist – There is also the case of Kurt Jooss – There is no doubt of course about his distinction – but he seems to fall between several stools – as he is neither actor, artist or musician – but I shall put his name before the Ctee –2
Yrs sincerely
R. Vaughan Williams
P.S.
I hear that the following have been released – Katay, Sondheimer, Deutsch, Redlich, Wellesz, Kalmus but I cannot make out that our recommendations had anything to do with it.
1. This refers to an advisory committee that VW chaired during World War II, which was set up to advise the government on the release, in particular cases, of alien musicians and artists interned in Britain.
2. On the background to this Committee set up to give advice on the release of interned musicians see Hugh Cobbe, ‘Vaughan Williams, Germany and the German tradition’, in Alain Frogley (ed.), Vaughan Williams Studies (Cambridge,1996), pp 93-94.
3. Julius Katay, conductor, Robert Sondheimer, music publisher, Otto Erich Deutsch, musicologist, Hans Redlich, musicologist, conductor and composer, Egon Wellesz, composer and Alfred Kalmus, music publisher.
