Founding Director – Windy City Gay Chorus, UNISON

Remembering Richard Garrin Pekala – Chicago Symphony Orchestra

Richard was unmistakably one of the early icons of the LGBTQ+ choral music movement, and as the founding director of Windy City Gay Chorus and Unison: Windy City Lesbian and Gay Singers, the man that made our reputation what it was in the decade of the 1980s, and a man of enormous talent and skill. I will forever remember my years singing under his baton, and the musical memories made because of him.

In the photo below from our appearance in Washington, DC in 1993 at the March on Washington, and at the National Cathedral, Richard is standing in the front row at the end on the far left.

Richard and his husband Francis made their home in New Jersey with their two dogs for many years.

-Gerry Johnson, longtime WCGC singer

To learn more of Richard’s legacy, please explore our history pages here.