Matej Šarc was born in 1965 in Ljubljana. He studied oboe with Božo Rogelja at the Academy of Music. After graduating from the Academy, he continued his studies with Heinz Holliger at the Musikhochschule in Freiburg. He became first oboe of the RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra and the Freiburg Philharmonic Orchestra.
As a soloist and chamber musician, he has performed throughout Europe, as well as in Australia, China, Mongolia, Japan and North and South America. He recorded numerous chamber and solo works for oboe for a range of European radio stations. His recordings were released by various Slovene and international labels. Since 1994, he has been a member of the Slovene Philharmonic Orchestra and the Slowind quintet, with which he received the Award of the Prešeren Fund in 2003. He teaches oboe master-classes in Slovenia (Piran Music), Italy, Austria, Ireland and Germany.

For a number of years he has also devoted himself to the organization and realization of the Ljubljana chamber music Festival Slowind, in which the quintet members have been joined by renowned artists such as Steven Davislim, Christiane Iven, Heinz Holliger, Arvid Engegård, Robert Aitken, Diego Chenna and Andrea Marchiol. In his artistic activities, a special place is given to contemporary music. As an organizer and interpreter, he gave première performances of works by Thorkell Sigurbjörnsson, Ivo Nilsson, Mist Thorkellsdottir, Martin Smolka, Volker Staub, Vinko Globokar, Lojze Lebic, Jürg Wyttenbach, Uros Rojko, Larisa Vrhunc, Ivo Petric, Primoz Ramovs and Bozidar Kos amongst others.