In May 1991, he earned a Doctor of Philosophy from the State University of New York at Buffalo. Sharman studied under Murray Adaskin, Rudolf Komorous, Brian Ferneyhough, Morton Feldman, David Felder, Frederic Rzewski, Louis Andriessen and Lucas Foss.
His music has been performed in over 30 countries worldwide. His chamber opera, Elsewhereless, a collaboration with Atom Egoyan, premiered in 1998 and has been staged 35 times internationally. Sharman earned degrees from the University of Victoria School of Music (Victoria, British Columbia) and the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik (Freiburg, Germany).
Sharman was guest composer at the Institute of Sonology (Utrecht, Netherlands) in 1983-1984.
He taught at Wilfrid Laurier University, the University of British Columbia School of Music, the School for the Contemporary Arts and Faculty of Graduate Liberal Studies, Simon Fraser University. Sharman was the Vancouver Symphony’s (VSO) Composer-in-Residence from 1997 to 2000 and its Composer/Music Advisor from 2000 to 2001.
He was Composer-in-Residence of the National Youth Orchestra of Canada in 2004, and he was Composer-in-Residence of the Victoria Symphony 2008-2010. The Canadian Section of the International Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM) elected him President from 1991-1995.
Canadian League of Composers (Civic Leadership Certification) elected Sharman President from 1993-1998.
He has served on the Civic Leadership Certification Council from 1988 to 1999.
