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.
Funding
Vaughan Williams Scholarships
Applications are now open for the 2026 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.
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
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 Alan Frank (OUP)
Letter No.: VWL2584
The White Gates,
Dorking.
25th March, 1948.
Dear Frank,
Here are my answers to your letter.
The “Partita” takes about twenty minutes.
The reference to Henry Hall only means that after hearing one of his more nostalgic pieces I was moved to write that Intermezzo.
Personally I think the performance was extremely good. They had worked hard at it.1
As regards programme notes, I am sending you a copy of the notes which I have written for the Philharmonic. I should like this to be used whenever programme notes are wanted. I suppose the Philharmonic would give leave? I will send the musical illustrations when I get a proof.2
As regards the Saxophone – it is essential to the work. I am tired of boiling down my work so that it can be played by two banjos and a harmonium, and surely all clarinetists3 * double the saxophone now. If they cannot run to a Saxophone I fear they cannot do the Symphony. You might as well play it without double basses.4
The Tudor Singers were rather previous. I have not written a new work for them, but they are giving the first concert performance of my Motet “The Souls of the Righteous”, which I wrote for Westminster Abbey.5
Yours sincerely,
R. Vaughan Williams
* except of course Alan Frank6
Encl.
Alan Frank, Esq.,
Oxford University Press.
1. Frank had written on 22nd March saying that he heard the first performance of the work ‘with great interest’ though the performance had struck him as being not too assured in places; the reference to Henry Hall [the Intermezzo has the sub-title ‘Homage to Henry Hall’] had eluded him.
2. In his letter of 22nd March Frank had asked for information about when VW had been working on the sixth symphony, Catalogue of Works 1947/3, and for any other vital points of interest to anyone writing a programme note.
3. sic.
4. Frank had asked whether VW would permit the tenor saxophone part t be played on a bass clarinet when no saxophone was available, fearing otherwise that potential performances might be lost.
5. Frank had told VW that the Tudor Singers had sent him a programme announcing a new work by VW in their concert on 30th April and he would much like to see it if it existed. VW had offered them The souls of the righteous, Catalogue of Works 1947/1, in lieu a new work – see VWL2571. The Tudor Singers and their conductor Harry Stubbs had close links with VW and gave the first private performance of An Oxford Elegy in November the following year at the White Gates.
6. Frank was a keen clarinettist. This line added in the hand of VW.
