He has worked with many leading voices in classical and contemporary music, including conductors David Robertson and Esa-Pekka Salonen, pianist Emanuel Ax, Spektral Quartet, and The Living Earth Show. He has been the recipient of residencies from Civitella Ranieri Foundation and the Visby International Centre for Composers as well as commissions from Carnegie Hall, the San Francisco Symphony, and the Chicago Symphony. In 2015 he was named a Mead Composer-in-Residence with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Adams grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area where he participated in the improvised music community from a young age. He attended Stanford University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in composition and electroacoustic music while performing contrabass in the Bay Area. He received a master's degree in composition from The Yale School of Music.