Simon Širec was born in 1987 in Novo mesto, Slovenia. He studied saxophone at the Conservatory of music and ballet in Ljubljana in the class of professor Dejan Prešiček. Further studies led him to Vienna where he enroled in the studio of professor Lars Mlekusch. After finishing his Bachelor degree Širec went to study with professor Gerald Preinfalk at the University of Music in Graz, where he concluded his saxophone education with masters degree in 2014. Parallel to saxophone studies Širec also studied musicology at the University of Fine Arts in Ljubljana. For his master thesis he was exploring the history of saxophone music in Slovenia. After graduating in the field of musicology he published an extended version of the research in the book "Development of the Slovenian Saxophone Repertoire". He actively performs as a soloist, chamber or orchestra musician. His great passion is the research of electronic artistic music combined with saxophones, EWI and loop station, while using advanced playing techniques such as slap tongue, beatbox, multiphonics and usage of voice while playing the saxophone. His innovative approach has been highly appreciated in the academic field as well as by a wider audience.