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 new 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, 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

VWF supports the work of British/Irish composers from the last 100 years, as well as projects which further the knowledge and understanding of the life and music of Ralph Vaughan Williams, and of the work of Ursula Vaughan Williams.

Applications for funding are now open. Ensembles, organisations and individuals are invited to apply.

Applications are also open for the Foundation’s £6,000 annual Vaughan Williams Bursaries for postgraduate composition students.

RVW150

12 October 2022 marked the 150th anniversary of the birth of Ralph Vaughan Williams, and the launch of this Foundation and #RVW150 celebrations continued into the summer of 2023.


Find out more about the composer and explore some of the projects which happened in the anniversary year

READ THE LATEST

Vaughan Williams Foundation

“Even after all the years studying and working on it, I still find it beguiling,” – Michael Waldron, director of the @theLCSmusic on Vaughan Williams’ Concerto Accademico.

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Vaughan Williams Foundation

The major donation of Vaughan Williams items made by @OUPMusic to the @britishlibrary at the end of 2022 is now listed on the @UkNatArchives website – the first step in ensuring the accessibility and visibility of these materials.

Details here: https://bit.ly/3PAUJyK .

Alexis Paterson

So delighted to be announcing our new composer development scheme today. There are many thanks to be made for getting us to this point, but especial ones go to our partners below and to Vivek, @lilliepharris @LiddellBiles @susannaeastburn @michael_duffy_ @NaomiBelshaw & @VWFndn

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Vaughan Williams Foundation

Our next funding deadline is coming up on April 12!

We are welcoming applications for our VWF bursaries, available to support students accepted on MA courses in composition, and who intend to follow careers as composers.

Find out more here 👉 https://bit.ly/3vnei6z

Vaughan Williams Foundation

The deadline for applications for our Postgraduate Bursaries is approaching!

Bursaries of up to £6K are available – details here ⬇️

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Vaughan Williams Foundation

How do you feel about this?!
Would you have enjoyed being Wagner’s first audience?
Or, like Vaughan Williams, are you glad you didn’t have to sit through this experience??

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Vaughan Williams Foundation

RVW reporting an amusing exchange about his own ‘interesting’ face with a young journalist from the #Yorshire Evening Post…

Vaughan Williams Foundation

Coffee pot??!! 😂
Love these fun facts – thank you @mrdanwalker

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SOMM RECORDINGS

Fantastic, in-depth review from John Quinn on @musicwebint for @RGCWbaritone and Susie Allan’s “Vaughan Williams: A Birthday Garland”: https://bit.ly/3Ts8n8g

“Lovers of English song should not hesitate: acquire this disc and gatecrash Uncle Ralph’s musical party.”

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Vaughan Williams Foundation

We hope you’ll be enjoying some musical brain activation this #weekend! 🎶 🧠

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