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).

THE FOUNDATION

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.


FIND OUT MORE

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.

FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES

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.

DISCOVER

READ THE LATEST

Vaughan Williams Foundation

The song’s lyrics use extracts from a poem, Before the Mirror, by Swinburne. Exploring themes of loss, it is a musical response to the Swinburne poem which in turn was inspired by Whistler's painting Symphony in White, No 2. Watch this space for links to the recording! 🧵 4/4

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Vaughan Williams Foundation

The song’s recording has been led by Dimitris Karydis, head of classical music, and Marianna Suri, curriculum leader for vocal studies at Morley College London. It was recorded last month in the Gustav Holst Concert Room by the College’s production arm, Morley Radio. 🧵 3/4

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Vaughan Williams Foundation

The song, Before the Mirror, was uncovered earlier this year in the college’s archives by Elaine Andrews, archivist and library manager. 🧵 2/4

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Vaughan Williams Foundation

Morley College London has today released a recording of a previously unknown work by Vaughan Williams. The manuscript, discovered in Morley's archives, was identified by the VWF as a “hitherto unknown work” and a significant addition to RVW's body of work 70 years after his death. 🧵 1/4

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Vaughan Williams Foundation

Take some time out this Friday (or over the weekend!) to enjoy the London Symphony Orchestra's performance of Vaughan Williams' A London Symphony, conducted by Sir Antonio Pappano. As part of a BBC Radio 3 round-up of music with a special focus on London 🎶

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Vaughan Williams Foundation

One of our favourite Vaughan Williams lines 💕

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Vaughan Williams Foundation

Gustav Holst writes to RVW about his desire to spend time with other composers, examining each other's work.

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Vaughan Williams Foundation

An exciting evening coming up at the BBC Proms! Evelyn Glennie & the Fantasia Orchestra will perform Ralph Vaughan Williams' Serenade to Music as part of a genre-busting programme at 10.15pm on Tuesday, August 11, at the Royal Albert Hall. Details here 👇

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Vaughan Williams Foundation

The VFW funds the performance, commissioning, or recording of music by professional British/Irish composers and/or projects that create developmental opportunities for composers or promote awareness of British/Irish music of the last 100 years.

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Vaughan Williams Foundation

Catch a performance of Vaughan Williams' 5 Variants on 'Dives and Lazarus' in Brighton on Saturday, July 18, with Emma Tring (soprano), Caroline Harrison (viola), Brighton Festival Youth Choir, Brighton Festival Chorus and the Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra. Conducted by James Morgan Dives.

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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.

BROWSE THE LETTERS

Letter of the Day

Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Iris Lemare

Letter No.: VWL1557

From R. Vaughan Williams,
The White Gates,
Westcott Road,
Dorking.

March 25 [1939]

Dear Iris

‘Windsor Forest’ takes about 25 minutes so I think we ought to allow 50 for rehearsal – but I will no be longer than I can help.1
The orchestra was 1st rate on Thursday.2
Yrs

Uncle Ralph

1. In the hand of AVW to this point, then in the hand of VW. The concert was in Lewes Town Hall on 22 April. RVW was introduced by John Christie (of Glyndebourne) and presented the awards at the end of the Lewes competitive festival. Lemare’s note: “This was a very special concert in my life. It would have made a great difference to me  – had the war not happened 6 months later. It is also precious as it was a “shared” concert with Ralph. I had done all the “donkey work” at the Lewes Festival, preparing the orchestra there for years. This concert the cttee decided to forego a soloist and instead get a first class professional orchestra and give me the chance to conduct it.”  “It was more or less the “London Phil” … Ralph conducted “Windsor Forest” and I did the rest [Overture – concerto – de Falla “El Amor Brujo”]. In the train going back on my own the leader – David Macallum – found me – and gave me a terrific boost and said he would see the manager about a concert with them. Of course it never happened! – but this was 1939 and could have boosted woman conductors”.
2. “The orchestra was 1st rate on Thursday” relates to RVW conducting in Kensington Town Hall for the Kensington Festival on Thursday 23 March.  Iris probably also fixed the orchestra for that event.

His music continues to inspire us. Its incredible breadth of style and outlook seems especially important in our polarised times.

CHRISTOPHER GLYNN, artistic director, Ryedale Festival

Among his acts were countless kindnesses, known only to himself and the persons concerned. He gave continuous encouragement to younger men. He had the dignified humility of a great man, and was utterly unself-seeking.

SIR ARTHUR BLISS, conductor

I cannot stress enough how important this organisation’s work is, what a profound difference it is making, and how it has enabled so many to develop creatively and give new work a platform. Vaughan Williams himself would surely be so proud of this legacy. 

ZOE MARTLEW, composer and cellist

It is necessary to know facts, but music will enable you to see past facts to the very essence of things in a way which science cannot do. The arts are the means by which we can look through the magic casements and see what lies beyond. 

RVW, letter to the children of Swaffham Primary School, 1958