Bettina Kee is a French-Italian composer, multi-instrumentalist, arranger, and singer-songwriter based in Paris. She also runs a recording studio and a production and music publishing company.
After training at the conservatoire (piano, percussion, saxophone, harmony, theory, counterpoint, orchestration, history of music and analysis) and at the Bill Evans Piano Academy, she made her debut on the professional scene working with many international artists in music and performing arts. She worked as rehearsal pianist and musical copyist for Argentinian director Alfredo Arias, and other national theatre musical productions at venues such as the MC 93, Opéra de Massy, and the Maison des Arts de Créteil. She frequently appears as a side musician (piano, synthesizers, vocoder, bass synth, organ, backing vocals) and has toured worldwide with artists including Australian singer Micky Green, and French artists Arthur H and Alain Bashung, among others.
Early in her career, she also worked as assistant to composer Michael Galasso, notably on the film Séraphine (directed by Martin Provost), which received the César Award for Best Original Score.
On a personal front, she led a trio (prepared piano, double bass, drums) of improvised music and released an instrumental jazz album to critical acclaim, before doing it again four years later under the Electric Mop moniker. She has also created special events working on arrangements and orchestration, and has collaborated with internationally renowned musicians such as Julien Lourau and the Latin Retrievers, DJ Simbad (Ashes To Machines), Colombian musician Eblis Alvarez from Meridian Brothers, pianist Bojan Z, Senegalese musician Cheick Lô, and French jazzman Denis Colin.
In 2011, she was revealed to a wider audience as singer-songwriter Ornette and has since toured worldwide (Jazz à Montréal, Jazz à la Villette, Nuits de Fourvières, Primeurs de Massy). She works with electronic musicians such as Nôze, Fink, Mo Laudi, Joris Delacroix, and Make The Girl Dance, releasing songs and collaborations on labels including Get Physical, Discograph, Barclay, Tôt ou Tard, Polydor, Mercury, and her own label Music Of The Century.
With over two decades of experience spanning feature films, documentaries, short films, and theater, she has scored works for directors such as Benoît Forgeard, Sophie Letourneur, and Pascal Bonitzer or promising young director Orian Ziad. She has received several distinctions, including the 2025 CNM Film Music Composition Grant, the Prix Italia in 2013, and the Musique en Courts composition prize in 2004.
Her interest in cross-disciplinary and multicultural projects has led her to study Musical Theatre in Ireland, Acting in English, and Hip Hop Dance to perfect her performance skills. She has also won international awards for the 360° music video she directed for Take Your Time (MIMO Milano Mobile Film Festival, Satis 360° Film Festival) and Sometimes I Feel (NY Awards, Brighton Rocks Film Festival).
Since 2021, she has been actively engaged in promoting equality and diversity in the music industry through her role as Vice-President of The Gender and Diversity Commission at SACEM and her involvement with the collective Troisième Autrice, advocating for women composers in film
