Lily Glick Finnegan (LGF) is a Chicago-born and -based drummer, composer, improviser, and organizer who transcends musical styles. 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 debut album in 2025 on Cuneiform Records. Described as a “love letter to Chicago” the band features Edward Wilkerson Jr., Fred Jackson Jr., and Nick Macri, and has received acclaim in Downbeat Magazine, Wire Magazine, Dusted Magazine and The Vinyl District. Other current projects include an improvisational duo with gabby fluke mogul which released Throw It In The Sink on Sonic Transmission Records, and playing in Ken Vandermark’s Edition Redux. 

On top of ongoing projects, Finnegan has collaborated with wide ranging artists including James Brandon Lewis, Nicole Mitchell, Nick Dunston, Bill Orcutt, Tomeka Reid, Macie Stewart, Fay Victor, Shanta Nurullah, Brandon Seabrook, Dave Rempis, Hannah Frances, Katie Ernst, Devon Gates, Erez Dessel, Jason Stein, Katinka Kleijn, Emma Dayhuff, Sarah Clausen, and Lia Kohl.

Lily has toured extensively in the United States and Europe. She has performed at festivals including The Hyde Park Jazz Fest, Sound and Gravity Festival, Wels Music Unlimited, All Ears Festival Oslo, Vision Sound Outdoor Festival, Madrid Jazz Festival, Catalytic Sound Festival and OCT-LOFT Jazz Festival in Shenzhen, China.

In 2021, Lily 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, and 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, and 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.

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