Lily Glick Finnegan (LGF) is a drummer, composer, improviser & organizer who transcends musical styles. As of 2026 Lily is a New Music USA “Next Jazz Legacy” awardee. She was spotlighted by The Chicago Reader as a “Chicagoan of Note” and included in The Chicago Sun Times “Next Generation of Jazz Musicians”. Lily leads her own quartet, Heat On, which put out their self titled album in 2025 and dropped 150 Swirl on Cuneiform Records end of August 2026. Described as a “love letter to Chicago” the band features Edward Wilkerson Jr., Fred Jackson Jr., & Nick Macri, and has received acclaim in Downbeat Magazine, Wire Magazine, Dusted Magazine & The Vinyl District. On top of ongoing projects, Finnegan has collaborated with wide ranging artists including James Brandon Lewis, Moor Mother, Nicole Mitchell, Nick Dunston, Ken Vandermark, Bill Orcutt, Tomeka Reid, Macie Stewart, Fay Victor, Tashi Dorji, Brandon Seabrook, Lia Kohl, Stefan Gonzalez, Dave Rempis, Katie Ernst, Devon Gates, Jason Stein, Katinka Kleijn, Emma Dayhuff, Julia Blair, Hannah Frances, Sarah Clausen, Erez Dessel, Will Greene, Ishmael Ali & Shanta Nurullah. Lily has toured extensively in the U.S. & Europe. She has performed at festivals including The Hyde Park Jazz Fest, Chicago Jazz Festival, Sound & Gravity Festival, Wels Music Unlimited, All Ears Festival Oslo, Vision Sound Outdoor Festival, Madrid Jazz Festival, Catalytic Sound Festival & OCT-LOFT Jazz Festival in Shenzhen, China. In 2021, she completed a Masters of Music from Berklee College of Music, receiving a full scholarship to participate in the Berklee Global Jazz Institute. At Berklee, she was part of the Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice where she was mentored by Terri Lyne Carrington, Kris Davis, & Linda May Han Oh. Her work with Carrington includes contributions to “Music for Abolition” as part of the Visualizing Abolition Exhibit at the University of California Santa Cruz. Prior to attending Berklee, she earned a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology and Music from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her studies fueled her interest in the confluence between power structures, history & social movements within music. In addition to her composing and performing, Lily co-curates the Option Series, a showcase of contemporary approaches to improvisation and composition, held at Experimental Sound Studio in Chicago. She is a member of international music cooperative Catalytic Sound.
Photo by: Dawid Laskowski
