Biography

Noted for her "sweet soprano voice: that critics say "may be the voice of a new gospel revoluation," September Penn emerged as an award-winning Gospel/inspirational singer, songwriter and recording artist in 2009.

Her unique vocal talents – which range from soulful urban sounds and "down-home" church choruses to ballads and classical arrangements – have carried her across America, to the Middle East and as far as China. "September excels with her voice, demonstrating a powerful and natural soulfulness," said England's Dancin' Dave Derbyshire, in a review of September's music. The wife and mother of three keeps busy as the worship leader for the contemporary service at Maximo Presbyterian Church in St. Petersburg, Fla., as well as working on her own music projects and theatrical performances.

A Virginia native, September has been singing with church choirs and family groups since her youth. At Virginia Tech, she was a soprano in the Voices of Expression choir and at Stanford University she sang with the Stanford Gospel Choir and the University Singers. She has directed several children, youth and adult choirs as well as worship teams at various churches.

Along with the choirs and worship teams, September also takes leading roles in theater. In June 2007, she was the co-music director for and performed in the international premiere of Stanford University Professor Clayborne Carson's Passages of Martin Luther King in Beijing, China, with the National Theater Company of China.

Along with singing, she has played the role of Dr. King's mother, Alberta Bunch King, and as his wife, Coretta Scott King. In spring 2011, Carson named September the music director for 10 performances of the play in Jerusalem and on the West Bank with the Palestinian National Theater.

September also has performed regularly in the St. Petersburg presentation of Langston Hughes' Black Nativity: A Gospel Song Play. She was the music director and wrote original music for a project for the homeless, called The Cardboard Stories, for which she received St. Petersburg's Sunshine Ambassador Award. The Cardboard Stories produced her second music project, with acclaimed song, Faces of Hope, and a remix of the title cut from her 2009 album, Hope for You.

September has performed and had her music played on Christian Television Network (CTN), at the National Association of Black Journalists Convention, during the U.S. fashion launch of Mario-Max Prince Schaumburg Lippe, of the royal family of Austria and on radio stations nationwide. She is the wife of Ivan Penn and mother of Ivy, Isaiah and Immanuel, the role she loves best.