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

Applications

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.

FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES

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.

WHO WE ARE

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

Funding

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.


FIND OUT MORE

READ THE LATEST

Vaughan Williams Foundation

Our next general funding application window opens in a month, on June 15, 2026. Details via our website 💻

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Vaughan Williams Foundation

On May 23, at Glasgow City Halls, Bearsden Choir will showcase the work of 2 important British composers – John Rutter & Ralph Vaughan Williams. 🎶Conductor: Andrew Nunn 🎶 Soprano: Monica McGhee 🎶 Baritone: Daniel Shelvey With the McOpera Ensemble.

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Vaughan Williams Foundation

"Here we see him experiment, testing textures, adjusting music to text and refining musical ideas.” The discovery was made by Morley College archivist Elaine Andrews.

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Vaughan Williams Foundation

Dimitris Karydis, head of classical music at Morely College, told The Sunday Times: “We may have a treasure in our hands. “It gives us access to his compositional thinking at a stage of his career where documentary evidence is rather rare… 🧵2/3

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Vaughan Williams Foundation

The VWF has had the pleasure of verifying that a newly discovered manuscript is indeed a formerly unknown song, written by Vaughan Williams. ‘Before the Mirror’ was written by RVW when he was in his late 20s. Morley College, where it was discovered, plans to record it. 🧵1/3

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Vaughan Williams Foundation

Vaughan Williams expert Hugh Cobbe estimates that the hitherto unknown song was written about 1899. He believes this is the 2nd version of the song, judging from the note ‘Original key E minor’. 🧵 3/3

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Vaughan Williams Foundation

It's thought that the manuscript is likely to have come from the estate of Morley College singing teacher, and student of RVW's friend Gustav Holst, Dulcie Nutting.🧵 2/3

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Vaughan Williams Foundation

🗞️ A new song by Ralph Vaughan Williams has been discovered! ‘Before the Mirror’ is a setting of part of a poem by Swinburne. It was recently unearthed in a box of odd manuscripts in the archive of Morley College by Learning Resources Centre Manager, Elaine Andrews. 🧵1/3

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Vaughan Williams Foundation

We like having something to look forward to! On September 4, at the Proms, Andrew Manze will conduct the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra in a celebration of English music, including RVW's Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis and Symphony No. 9 👇

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Vaughan Williams Foundation

Booking is now open for Ralph and Ursula Vaughan Williams: A Love Story in Words and Music, with Katie Bray, mezzo, Kieran Rayner, baritone and pianist Nigel Foster. July 9, The Hub at St Mary’s, Lichfield. Details here 👇

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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 Katharine Thomson

Letter No.: VWL2159

The White Gates
Dorking

Jan 2nd 1951

Dear Mrs Thomson

This is most kind of you – I know that Erica1 will be very grateful.
Yrs sincerely

R. Vaughan Williams

1. Erica Yorke. See VWL2132.

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