RVW150

Celebrating Ralph Vaughan Williams 150 years after his birth.

In 2022-3 RVW150 celebrated Ralph Vaughan Williams with performances, recordings, new works and imaginative projects around the country (and beyond) to help widen our understanding of this many-faceted composer.

Get a taste of the celebrations with the small selection below.

Whoever thought Vaughan Williams a bit of a pastoral retrograde should hear this (Flos Campi)… it’s mad, bizarre and glorious. 

FIONA MADDOCKS, The Observer

Certain music is necessary at a certain time, and Vaughan Williams’s Fifth Symphony struck me as something we need to hear now. It has this incredible strength and serenity: a feeling of ‘this is what the world could be when we emerge from this’.

SIR SIMON RATTLE, conductor

There’s an emotional honesty to his writing. His language is one which can be appreciated on so many levels.

TASMIN LITTLE, violinist

Thank you so much to this wonderful forward thinking musical organisation without which new music activities in the U.K. would be substantially curtailed.  

DARRAGH MORGAN and MARY DULLEA, Fidelio Trio

RVW150 NEWS

RVW resources for Music Teachers

A new programme produced by the Music Teachers’ Association, has been set up to provide resources for teaching about the work of Ralph Vaughan Williams, from Early Years Foundation Stage through to Key Stage 5. Teaching resources are available completely free of charge to all schools and organisations running education projects and can be downloaded from the MTA.

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New window celebrating RVW unveiled

A newly commissioned stained glass window by artist Thomas Denny, celebrating the composer Ralph Vaughan Williams in the place of his birth, was unveiled at All Saints, Down Ampney.

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Today’s composers celebrate RVW

Throughout the 150th anniversary celebrations a special series of new works inspired by RVW’s music, ideas, or life, were performed round the country.

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News from the publishers

From the completion of a major unfinished score, to a composer’s cut of the 1948 film of Scott of the Antarctic, together with new editions, collections and orchestrations of well-loved pieces, RVW’s publishers continue to bring his work to new performers and audiences.

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From pub to pulpit

From Pub to Pulpit created different programmes for each venue, bringing to life the musical journey of folk songs RVW collected, and later ‘borrowed’ for hymns

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His music has an emotional honesty

‘A composer who believed that music should be felt, rather than described’

RVW 150 Ambassador, violinist Tasmin Little, on the enduring popularity of RVW’s music.

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#RVW150

Vaughan Williams Foundation

"Opening with a breathless whisper, it flutters and soars before vanishing into a realm of spiritual tranquillity." – Clive Paget for The Guardian, on violinist Pekka Kuusisto's new recording of RVW's The Lark Ascending, The track is included on the new 5⭐ reviewed Willows album.

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Vaughan Williams Foundation

Vaughan Williams states his commitment to preserving folk music 🎶

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Vaughan Williams Foundation

A fortune indeed! 💷

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Vaughan Williams Foundation

Save this post as a reminder of our general funding application deadlines over the next 12 months. 🗓️

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Vaughan Williams Foundation

We agree – music has the power to reach across differences, and bring listeners together 🎶

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Cambridge English Faculty

Jade Cuttle explores Vaughan Williams’ fenland legacy on BBC Radio 3 Jade Cuttle, a PhD student at the Faculty, recently appeared on BBC Radio 3’s Sunday Feature. In the programme, she retraced the fenland journeys of composer Ralph…

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Vaughan Williams Foundation

Michael Finnissy's bold and ambitious Complete Works album spans almost 60 years of his career. It represents the enormous contribution to the repertoire of the instrument made by one of Britain’s most significant composers. Supported by the VWF, due for release March 13, 2026 👏

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Vaughan Williams Foundation

“Riders to the Sea is a beautiful and tragic work by Ralph Vaughan Williams, based on the play of the same name by John Millington Synge" – conductor Joanna Drimatis. Sydney-based Gente, gente! Productions is set to launch with a bold double bill. More here 👇

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Vaughan Williams Foundation

Explore a fabulous range of photographs relating to the life of Ralph Vaughan Williams, via our website 💻

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Vaughan Williams Foundation

Concerto in F Minor for Bass Tuba and Orchestra – Ralph Vaughan Williams. 🎧 Listen to this 2013 recording with John Fletcher, tuba, and the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Andre Previn 👇

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