The Mendel Center’s annual Winter Delights returns with live, in-person entertainment on Saturday, February 26, 2022. This year’s event is going to sizzle with an unforgettable night of music on the Mainstage at 8 pm with Las Cafeteras direct from Los Angeles. Before the concert, attendees can participate in a variety of optional pre-show activities.
“Last year’s sold-out Winter Delights virtual event was a huge hit with a blend of music, wine and chocolate tasting, and a cooking demonstration. This year we are excited to bring similar themes together again, this time during an in-person experience,” stated Mendel Center Director Grace Kelmer.
Born and raised east of the Los Angeles River, Las Cafeteras are remixing roots music and telling modern-day stories of Latino and immigrant lives. Using traditional Son Jarocho instruments like the jarana, requinto, quijada (donkey jawbone) and tarima (a wooden platform), Las Cafeteras sing in English, Spanish, and Spanglish and meld styles, from rock to hip-hop to rancheras. Las Cafeteras use music as a vehicle to build bridges among different cultures and communities, and create “a world where many worlds fit”.
At 5:30 in Grand Upton Hall, The Mendel Center will host a dinner and community workshop with members of Las Cafeteras. The workshop entitled ‘Shifting Culture through Culture: A Journey in Bridge-Building & Reimagining Power,” is an interactive session where the presenters will break out of preaching to the choir and build a congregation of bridge-builders and power-shifters. Las Cafeteras have been using culture to shift culture for the last 10 years. They will cite frontline case studies of cultural workers who employ pop culture anecdotes, art, culture, and sports to imagine how we can make our communities, campuses, offices, and all our relations sanctuary spaces. Tickets for the dinner and workshop are $25 per person.
At 6:30 pm, wine and chocolate take center stage during two concurrent sessions. Attendees can choose one of the two, one-hour sessions for $15 per person.
Michigan vs The World is a fun and informative guided wine tasting experience. Lake Michigan College Wine and Viticulture Program Director Michael Moyer will lead participants through a comparative tasting of wines from Michigan and other growing regions. Moyer has 20 years of commercial winemaking experience and holds a Master of Science in Viticulture and Enology from the University of California, Davis. He comes to Michigan most recently from Figgins Family Wine Estates in Walla Walla, Washington. Prior to that, Moyer worked as Instructor of Wine Science and Winemaker for College Cellars of Walla Walla. His early industry experience was gained in Amador, Napa, and Sonoma counties, as well as the Willamette Valley.
During The World of Chocolate, join Chef Luis Amado and one of his LMC culinary students as they demonstrate some of the essential practices of making chocolate and guide participants through a tasting of chocolate from different regions of the world. A native of Guadalajara Mexico, Chef Amado began his career at the age of 14 as a pastry cook. He moved to the U.S. to study culinary arts and graduated from GRCC in 1992. He then traveled to Europe and worked in Spain and Belgium to develop his knowledge of classical European pastry. He was the program director for The Culinary Institute of Michigan at Muskegon, Michigan, for 22 years. He is currently the Culinary Management Program Chair at Lake Michigan College since 2016. In the summer months he travels internationally to teach workshops and master classes to other professional chefs in Europe and Latin America.
Beginning at 7 pm, attendees who are 21 and older can enjoy local wines and craft beers in the Mainstage lobby.
Tickets for each segment of the evening are on sale now. Packages that include dinner, one tasting session, and the concert are $50. Tickets for each segment are also sold separately so attendees can choose their level of participation. Reserved Mainstage seating tickets for Las Cafeteras are $20. Dinner and community workshop tickets are $25. Tickets for the wine tasting or chocolate making demonstration are $15. Tickets are available at www.TheMendelCenter.com and through The Mendel Center box office at (269) 927-8700, option 1 weekdays from 2 to 6 pm, and one hour before show times.
Posted December 07, 2021