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 are open 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 are now open.
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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Vaughan Williams Foundation
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Following its acclaimed production of Hugh the Drover, The New London Opera Group returns to Vaughan Williams with a new concert production of The Poisoned Kiss.
Tues, March 25, Friday, March 28 & Sat, March 29, at Holy Trinity Church in Kensington.
🎫 https://newlondonoperagroup.org/2025/01/16/the-poisoned-kiss-tickets-on-sale-now/
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Vaughan Williams Foundation
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Inspiration for music teachers this #Monday morning – or perhaps not! 😂
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Harrogate District Chamber of Commerce
@hgchamber
HSO Spring Celebration Concert marking 50 years since Arthur Bliss’s death and 40 years of Bryan Western conducting HSO. Music by Elgar, Bliss and Vaughan-Williams. Soloist Lily Dai (cello).
#hdcc #harrogate #business #springcelebration #vaughanwilliams
https://loom.ly/wlFchRo
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Vaughan Williams Foundation
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The wonders of composition… 🎼
Have a lovely weekend!
BBC Radio 3
@bbcradio3
“My aunt told me that Bach was quite a good composer but not so good as Handel.”
Ralph Vaughan Williams in 1950 on his musical influences.
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Vaughan Williams Foundation
@vwfndn
Vaughan Williams Foundation Scholarships are offered to exceptionally talented PhD and Masters students of composition at British universities or conservatoires who anticipate a career as a professional composer.
Find out more here: https://vaughanwilliamsfoundation.org/funding/postgraduate-funding/
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Vaughan Williams Foundation
@vwfndn
Words from writer Hugh Morris which sum up what a contradictory, yet interesting contribution RVW made to British classical music 🎶
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Vaughan Williams Foundation
@vwfndn
Following its acclaimed production of Hugh the Drover, The New London Opera Group returns to Vaughan Williams with a new concert production of The Poisoned Kiss.
Tues, March 25, Friday, March 28 & Sat, March 29, at Holy Trinity Church in Kensington.
🎫 https://newlondonoperagroup.org/2025/01/16/the-poisoned-kiss-tickets-on-sale-now/
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Vaughan Williams Foundation
@vwfndn
📣 Deadline approaching!
Vaughan Williams Scholarships, worth up to £8K, replace the Vaughan Williams Bursaries previously given only for MA studies. Registrations to apply close on March 31.
Get your application in now!
Details here: https://vaughanwilliamsfoundation.org/funding/postgraduate-funding/
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Vaughan Williams Foundation
@vwfndn
✒️ We wonder what it was that made RVW feel young again!
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 Sir Henry Wood at the BBC
Letter No.: VWL1861
From R. Vaughan Williams,
The White Gates,
Westcott Road,
Dorking.
Jan 21 [1944]
Dear Wood
I think that you definitely turned down my Concerto for oboe and strings as being unsuitable for the Albert Hall. With this I entirely agree and hope to be able to offer you something else when the time comes.
I only write now because someone else has been making enquiries about it and I did not want even to appear to be playing you false.1
Yrs sincerely
R Vaughan Williams
1. In VWL1859 VW had written to Wood offering him the oboe concerto (Catalogue of Works 1944/1) with the rider: ‘but I think that you consider most oboe concerti do not do in the Albert Hall’.
