Ars Nova's New Paths Festival Presents St. Francis Duo at St. Francis de Sales Roman Catholic Church

St. Francis was born to wealth, enjoyed it, and then renounced worldly goods and privilege in order to be closer to God. He was the first recorded stigmatic in Christian history. The St. Francis Duo—featuring British jazz drummer Steve Noble and experimental guitarist-composer Stephen O'Malley—will perform at St. Francis de Sales Roman Catholic Church, a West Philadelphia icon built in the Byzantine Revival style. This is their North American debut.

This event is part of Ars Nova Workshop's Center-funded New Paths Festival, a citywide festival conceptually connecting some of the most innovative artists in the world to a variety of historic and peculiar Philadelphia spaces. While the work of these artists is inherently adventurous, the festival aims to deepen artists' engagement with their performance space as well as with the city's history, cultures, and people, making these events uniquely Philadelphian.