A lifelong musician, Lilling planned to pursue a career in music composition for film and television; after moving to Los Angeles in 1992, he enrolled in a graduate school program at the Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California.
From 1986–1993, he held the post of "Gregor Piatigorsky Endowed Chair in Violoncello" at the USC Thornton School of Music in Los Angeles; he was only the second person to ever hold the title, following Piatigorsky himself.
Adams was drawn to Los Angeles in the mid ‘90s to study film scoring at USC Thornton School of Music’s famed Scoring for Motion Pictures and Television (SMPTV) program which is the world’s most acclaimed programs of its kind.
He is also one of a very few Canadian academics who have studied with notable film composers Jerry Goldsmith, John Williams, Bruce Broughton, Henry Mancini and Buddy Baker at the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music in composition for motion pictures and television.
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Students frequently receive scholarships to the country’s top music colleges, such as The Juilliard School, Berklee College of Music, Manhattan School of Music, The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music, USC Thornton School of Music, California Institute for the Arts, Oberlin College Conservatory, and countless others.