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 will open on 4 June. Ensembles, organisations and individuals are invited to apply.
The Foundation also offers 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
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Vaughan Williams Foundation
@vwfndn
This dynamic image was taken as Vaughan Williams rehearsed his 8th Symphony in 1950.
The 8th is the shortest of the composer’s 9 symphonies, and is mostly buoyant in tone.
Sir John Barbirolli conducted @the_halle in the premiere at the Kings Hall in Manchester, on 2 May 1956.
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Vaughan Williams Foundation
@vwfndn
The Vaughan Williams Foundation was established in 2022, exactly 150 years after the birth of the celebrated composer Ralph Vaughan Williams.
We aim to honour RVW’s desire to support his fellow composers, and we also aim to make his work accessible to wider audiences.
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Vaughan Williams Foundation
@vwfndn
Vaughan Williams’ 7th symphony, Sinfonia Antartica, was created after he composed the score for the 1948 film Scott of the Antarctic
The evening before he left for Manchester for the first performance in 1952, RVW asked Ursula Wood to marry him.
📻: https://bit.ly/4axxzBN
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Vaughan Williams Foundation
@vwfndn
“The baritone has been singing this collection, his ‘fantasy birthday party concert’, in recitals with pianist Susie Allan and their collaboration has been honed to perfection for this album ” – @LimelightArtsAu on @RGCWbaritone’s Vaughan Williams, A Birthday Garland.
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Philip Gough #FBPE
@goughphilip1
Vaughan Williams’ Sea Symphony
@SnapeMaltings
Saturday May 11th. A few more days to go! Please book tickets: phoenixsingers@outlook.com Generously supported by @VWFndn
@PhoenixSingers4
@BecclesChoral
@LambethOrchestr
@BrittenPears
@RVWSociety
@rogerandout56
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Vaughan Williams Foundation
@vwfndn
Vaughan Williams composed his Symphony No. 6 between 1944 and 1947. The premiere took place in 1948, at the Royal Albert Hall in London with the @BBCSO, conducted by Adrian Boult.
🔎 Explore its background with @MusicMagazine here: https://bit.ly/4aCsCHC
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Vaughan Williams Foundation
@vwfndn
This article by @cathLoveday about the connections between music and memory contains a lovely account of how one couple were keen to have Vaughan Williams’ The Lark Ascending playing at the birth of their baby…
📖 Read it here: https://www.classical-music.com/articles/music-and-memory
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Fenella Humphreys
@fhvln
WOW! Sneaked into the classical charts amongst some really amazing people!
Thanks so much to all you beautiful people who have listened to Prism! ❤️
It’s so great to be able to share this brilliant music!
❤️🎻❤️🎻❤️🎻❤️
https://lnk.to/fenellahumphreysprism
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Leominster Museum
@leomuseum
A reminder: the first in @leomuseum’s series of events celebrating the life of Ella Mary Leather is now just over a month away. Tickets selling fast. Members of @MFNcharity, @VWFndn, @TheEFDSS, @3choirs, don’t let this very special occasion slip through your fingers. Book now!
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Vaughan Williams Foundation
@vwfndn
Vaughan Williams wrote his Symphony No. 5 in D major between 1938 and 1943.
It represented a shift away from the dissonance of his Fourth Symphony and a return to the gentler style of the earlier Pastoral Symphony.
The work was an immediate success at its premiere in 1943 👏
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 Edward J. Dent
Letter No.: VWL326
[April 1910]
Dear Dent
I enclose copy of S. Lad1 with words as I want them.
Claribel is the Tennyson
I send a copy of “The Sky” for words2
I don’t see why you shd bother about putting up the players – it wd rather bore your friends to have to entertain orchestral players wdnt it? I shd think they cd find their way to some little pub cdnt they – but of course its not for me to put them off a good thing!
They are going to rehearse at Cambridge in the afternoon.
Yrs
RVW
1. On Wenlock Edge
2. Claribel and ‘The Sky’ were songs to be included in a forthcoming concert; see VWL307, VWL308, VWL309.
