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
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.
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.
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
Twitter feed image.
Dorking and Surrey Local History
@dorking_history
FREE Zoom talk on “Ralph Vaughan Williams & Lucy Broadwood – Musical Friends and Neighbours” at 19:30 on Monday 19th Jan
Zoom-register at https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/8ac9Uzg5Sf-hEEK_ODQMqA
More at http://www.dlhg.org.uk
#edutwitter #twitterstorians #folkmusic @TheEFDSS
BBC Music Magazine
@musicmagazine
🇬🇧 Terry Blain explores the life, times and works of one of British music’s most enduring figures
Twitter feed image.
Vaughan Williams Foundation
@vwfndn
Ralph Vaughan Williams set up the RVW Trust in 1956 with the intention that all future income from the performing rights in his music be used for the benefit of his fellow composers and those who came after him.
Find out about the support we offer composers via our website.
Twitter feed image.
Vaughan Williams Foundation
@vwfndn
Vaughan Williams’ father Arthur, was ordained vicar of All Saints’ church in Down Ampney.
Despite being agnostic, Vaughan Williams edited The English Hymnal in 1904, composed some stunning Christian choral music, and wrote an opera of The Pilgrim’s Progress.
Twitter feed image.
Vaughan Williams Foundation
@vwfndn
Catch Vaughan Williams and his Circle: Nash Ensemble, BBC Radio 3 Lunchtime Concert at 1pm, the Jerwood Hall in London on Thursday, January 22.
The concert will be recorded for future broadcast on Radio 3.
Details and 🎫 : https://www.lso.co.uk/whats-on/vaughan-williams-and-his-circle-nash-ensemble-22-jan-26/
Twitter feed image.
Vaughan Williams Foundation
@vwfndn
Vaughan Williams composed the haunting song cycle On Wenlock Edge in 1909. It comprises settings of 6 poems from A E Housman’s 1896 collection A Shropshire Lad.
This performance was recorded live in the New England Conservatory’s Jordan Hall in 2022: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=loMHyP02u1M
Twitter feed image.
Vaughan Williams Foundation
@vwfndn
Ralph Vaughan Williams’ letters to his friends, family, pupils and fellow musicians are often frank and full of fascinating insights which give a glimpse of the man himself.
Read them online here: https://vaughanwilliamsfoundation.org/discover/letters/
Twitter feed image.
Vaughan Williams Foundation
@vwfndn
In this 2017 episode of BBC Radio 4’s Tales From the Stave, Frances Fyfield is joined by a panel including former BBC Young Musician of the Year Jennifer Pike to examine the only manuscript of Ralph Vaughan Williams’ The Lark Ascending.
📻:https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/b07h9xdn
Twitter feed image.
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 are planning a career as a professional composer.
Check out our website for more details 💻
Vaughan Williams Foundation
@vwfndn
A 5⭐️ review of Roderick Williams’ An English Song Winterreise at the @wigmore_hall
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 Charles Cudworth
Letter No.: VWL2681
From R. Vaughan Williams,
10, Hanover Terrace,
Regents Park,
London, N.W.1.
May 11, 1953
Dear Cudworth
This is certainly my writing – I wish I cd write as well now.1
May I be allowed to say how much I like the Fen libretto.2
Yrs ever
R. Vaughan Williams
1. A VW manuscript had been discovered in the Pendlebury Library and had been sent to VW to verify as to whether it was in his autograph.
2. Cudworth had written the libretto for Patrick Hadley’s cantata Fen and flood, a work for male chorus which VW later arranged for soprano and tenor soloists and mixed chorus; Catalogue of Works 1956/6.
