He was educated at Westminster Abbey, Winchester College, Conservatoire Royale de Musique of Brussels and the Hochschule fur Musik, Hanover.
Adlam is known as a soloist for his performances of the concerti by Tchaikovsky, Paganini, Mendelssohn, Bruch, Wieniawski, Bach, Mozart and Vivaldi.
Adlam's CD recordings of works for violin by Carl Nielsen received a Pizzicato Supersonic award in 2007.
[2] Adlam's recording of the Schubert Octet was voted surround sound audio DVD of the year 2004 by the Verband Deutscher Tonmeister ,[3] and his performance there has been characterized as showing "almost superhuman strength and virtuosity".
On 6 August 2005, he played in the world premiere of Christian Jost's eingefroren (Trio for violin, clarinet, and piano) at the Freden Festival.