Albert Meredith Davies CBE (30 July 1922 – 9 March 2005) was a British conductor, renowned for his advocacy of English music by composers such as Benjamin Britten, Frederick Delius and Ralph Vaughan Williams.
His co-conducting, with the composer, of the premiere of Britten's War Requiem, at the re-consecration of Coventry Cathedral on 30 May 1962, is generally regarded as one of the highlights of British 20th-century choral music.
Having been encouraged by Sir Adrian Boult to become a full-time conductor, he went to the Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome in 1954 and 1956 to study conducting with Fernando Previtali.
He cut his operatic teeth with Colin Davis's Chelsea Opera Group, and conducted Berlioz's La damnation de Faust in 1958, Mozart's Idomeneo in 1962 and Rossini's Il barbiere di Siviglia in 1963.
Davies resigned from the deputy musical directorship in Birmingham in 1960, and made a very successful Covent Garden debut in November, conducting Peter Grimes.
Early in 1961 he conducted more performances of Peter Grimes before going to Vancouver in July for the North American premiere of A Midsummer Night's Dream.
When Britten, following a minor operation, arrived in Coventry for final rehearsals, he found the acoustics unsatisfactory, cathedral staff unco-operative, and the chorus on the verge of walking out when an attempt was made to reduce their numbers because of lack of space.
Alternative conductors such as Georg Solti and Carlo Maria Giulini were suggested, but Britten proposed that Meredith Davies would conduct the orchestra, chorus and Heather Harper, and Britten himself would conduct the chamber orchestra accompanying the two male soloists (Peter Pears, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau) and the Melos Ensemble.
That year he was appointed musical director of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and stayed in that post until 1971, broadening its repertory considerably.
He was Principal of Trinity College of Music 1979–88, President of the Incorporated Society of Musicians 1985–86, and Chairman of the Delius Trust 1991–97.