Adam began his musical career with the clarinet at age 9, which he performed through early college years and still features occasionally in Lucid Druid shows. At age 10 he took up the piano, and at age 12 he began to learn the bagpipes under the instruction of Pipe Major Sandy Keith in Dunedin, Florida through the local school system. He quickly excelled at the bagpipes in both solo and band competition, and at 17 was named Pipe Major of the Dunedin High School Scottish Highlanders.
After graduating high school, Quinn enrolled at the University of South Florida in Tampa, FL to major in music performance (clarinet). He took a job at Disney's EPCOT Center in Orlando as a substitute musician in a bagpipe trio, which led to a job at Tokyo Disneyland for the next two years. Returning to the US, he worked as a musician at EPCOT until enrolling at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, British Columbia in 1995. In 1996 Quinn joined the ranks of the World Champion Simon Fraser University Pipe Band, with whom he won two World Championship titles in 1996 & 1999. For several years Quinn was not only a member of this band, but also a composer, arranger and concert soloist. Much of his work has been featured on SFUPB albums, most notably Live at Carnegie Hall and Down Under: Live at the Sydney Opera House. Additionally, Quinn's music has been performed on the albums of numerous artists and featured in the 2001 World Championship winning medley.
In 2003, Quinn stopped competing with bagpipes on the professional circuit and focused more on composition and the development of his current Celtic fusion band, Lucid Druid. In 2004 he released his first collection of original bagpipe music, The Quinnmusic Collection, and Lucid Druid also released their debut album, Anecdota, which is based around Quinn's original compositions.
