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
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Explore the work and life of Ralph Vaughan Williams in more detail…
We have compiled some useful links to help visitors to our website explore the life and works of the composer.
💻 Find them here: https://vaughanwilliamsfoundation.org/discover/useful-links/
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We so agree with this thought from Christopher Glynne, music has the power to bring people together.
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“When encountering an unfamiliar composition by Ralph Vaughan Williams, I find myself asking the same questions: where have I heard this before? Do I know this already or am I simply imagining it?”
– Hugh Morris writing on Vaughan Williams for The Guardian in 2022.
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The friendship between composers Ralph Vaughan Williams and Gustav Holst was a deep, lifelong bond that began at the Royal College of Music around 1895.
They became each other’s most valued critics, discussing their work and taking “field days” to critique compositions.
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🎧 An interesting listen!
BBC Radio 3’s Stephen Johnson looks at three English masterpieces exploring the English idyll in light of WWI – including Vaughan Williams’ On Wenlock Edge and The Lark Ascending.
Access it here, via BBC Sounds: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p01yxdr5
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Hugh Cobbe, a founder trustee of the VWF, has stepped down after 25 years of close connections to all things RVW.
Hugh was formerly Head of Music Collections at the British Library and a close friend of Ursula Vaughan Williams.
We thank him for his generosity & leadership👏
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Established in 2022, the VWF supports composers and work which furthers knowledge of the lives and music of Ralph and Ursula Vaughan Williams.
Funding applications are now open!
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Start the week with this Philharmonia Orchestra performance of RVW’s Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis, conducted by John Wilson
This piece was part of the Philharmonia Sessions, a series of online concerts filmed during the Covid pandemic.
📺: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6pEIHtffqQ
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Looking for a musical treat this weekend?
How about Vasily Petrenko conducting the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in Vaughan Williams’ A London Symphony, at the #Proms in September. Including some welcome words from Petrenko beforehand.
📺 Watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5sKnnC4igDk
Prospect
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Three different programmes, three different countries, and Vaughan Williams’s “undiscovered masterpiece” ALONG THE FIELD…
Our classical columnist, @IBostridge, had a busy October:
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 Roy Douglas
Letter No.: VWL2254
The White Gates,
Westcott Road,
Dorking.
13th June, 1951.
Dear Roy
I have been putting some alterations and repairs into my Opera.1 Would you, as usual, be kindly willimg to act as accoucheur for the new bits?
There is nothing in Act I. There is a small addition and alteration in Act II which I can send you now. The same in Act IV which will be ready very shortly.
Act III will take rather longer but I expect to be able to finish it in about a week.
I should like to have it all ready for a possible performance at Covent Garden in the Autumn.
Yrs
R Vaughan Williams
1. Pilgrim’s Progress.
