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
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.
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.
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
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 Ernest Irving to Ralph Vaughan Williams
Letter No.: VWL2375
Ernest Irving
4, The Lawn,
Ealing Green, W.5.
7th March, 1952
Dear V-W
The score of “Antarctica” arrived this morning.1 I have had, you may be sure, an exciting time reading it through. It will take, of course, some days to digest it but at first reading it gives an unmistakable impression of power, magnitude and colour. The tunes seem to me to stand up nobly to their new symphonic responsibilities, including the penguins!!
I am afraid the Intermezzo will become popular.
I am certain John Barbirolli will be delighted with it, and revel in rehearsing and conducting it. Its epic style and colourful illustration will suit him down to the ground — or I should say, down to the ice-floe. It is the first time that film music has been really raised to the loftier level of symphonic poetry, and it will be the first Symphony ever written that schoolchildren will enjoy as much as their elders.
I am really too excited to write any more, so will close with respect and affection.
Later, 4p.m. I have read the score through again and though I naturally find it difficult to dissociate the music from the visuals of the film I feel confident that the music can stand by itself. One must remember that it was inspired by actual history and composed before the film was made and though it was applied ad hoc it possesses I think sufficient character and individuality to put it in the first rank.
It is not easy to compare it with VI because it is impressionistic and even descriptive, whereas VI was absolute and metaphysical. It has more unity of style with the Pastoral, which by the way, I am trying to get into the Phil2 programme for next season. I expect there will be a few half-blind critics who will imagine nothing good can come out of the Kinema but its strength, forthright style and simplicity of outline will I am sure find recognition from the great body of music-lovers, including naturally
Yours ever
Ernest Irving
P.S. Will write again later.
1. The Symphony was dedicated to Irving and was clearly newly completed. Its first performance was in Manchester on 14th January 1953, given by the Hallé orchestra under John Barbirolli.
2. i.e. the Royal Philharmonic Society, which gave the first London performance on 21 January 1953 with the same forces.
