SummerKeys: That 70’s Show

A low-key music workshop in a high-tech digital world

By Frank Van Riper

Photography Columnist

LUBEC, Maine–The old saying is that you can’t argue with success, but that hasn’t stopped some people from trying to persuade Bruce Potterton, the septuagenarian founder and director of the famed SummerKeys music workshops in Lubec, Maine, to get with the program and modernize.

Bruce, 78, a longtime concert pianist and teacher from New Jersey, began the SummerKeys workshops in this easternmost town in the United States 21 years ago, offering piano classes to adult students who wanted simply to immerse themselves in their music in one of the most beautiful settings on earth.