Con Fullam, Founder of Pihcintu Multicultural Chorus, Greenlight Maine + Elevating Voices, Composer + Producer

By Rachel Hurn

Con Fullam, who was born on a farm in Sidney to a musically minded family, has been playing and performing since he was five years old. Today, Fullam is an award-winning producer, musician, song-writer, and five-time Emmy Award nominee. In 2006, driven by his deep concern for the effect of war, famine, and political turmoil on children, Fullam founded the Pihcintu Multicultural Chorus, a multinational immigrant and refugee girl’s chorus. “Over 300 girls have participated, and of that number 100 percent have graduated from high school, and 85 percent have gone on to post-secondary education,” Fullam says. Just before the pandemic hit, Pihcintu performed for Bono at a meeting of the General Assembly of the United Nations; last year the chorus marked the end of lockdown with YoYo Ma accompanying them onstage at a concert in Bar Harbor celebrating Juneteenth. On top of Fullam’s work bringing attention to the difficulties of refugee children, he is also the creator and showrunner of Greenlight Maine, a series designed to expose and elevate the thriving entrepreneurial ecosystem that is ever-expanding here, as well as Elevating Voices, a series created last year that celebrates diverse businesses and their importance to Maine’s economy. “It has provided the viewers of Maine Public Television with a multitude of ‘aha’ moments,” says Fullam, “highlighting the contributions by so many talented entrepreneurs, from Somali farmers in Wales, Maine, to Wabanaki makers of fine jewelry, haute couture, and Native American music.”