The Canadian bass Phillip Ens studied in Montreal and made his operatic début in 1985 as the Marchese di Calatrava in La Forza del Destino for the Manitoba Opera. Subsequently he made numerous appearances with the Montreal, Vancouver, Edmonton and Manitoba Operas including rôles such as Sarastro and The Speaker in Die Zauberflöte, Colline in La Bohème, Sparafucile in Rigoletto, Banco in Macbeth, the King in Aida, Masetto in Don Giovanni and Don Basilio in Il barbiere di Siviglia. He appeared in title rôle in Le nozze de Figaro with the Pacific Opera, Frère Laurence in Roméo et Juliette with the Calgary Opera, Don Basilio at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa and made his Canadian Opera Company début as Don Fernando in Fidelio. He made his stage début in the United States in 1989 with the Philadelphia Orchestra singing Colline. Other appearances in the United States were with the Opera Company of Philadelphia, Denver, Pittsburgh, and Austin Lyric Operas. He has been a frequent guest soloist with orchestras in Canada and in Europe and from 1993–2000 was a principal bass with the Staastheater Stuttgart where his rôles included Sarastro, Parafucile, Banco, Colline, the Commendatore, the Hermit in Der Freischütz and his highly applauded Pimen in a new production of Boris Godunov. His Wagnerian rôles there have included those of Fafner and Hunding. He has appeared in this last rôle at the Metropolitan Opera New York where he has also appeared as the Commendatore and as Tiresias in Oedipus Rex. His career has also taken him to Chicago Lyric Opera, San Francisco Opera, the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, the Nederlandse Opera, the Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin and the Hamburgische Staatsoper, with further appearances at the Paris Bastille, the Bayerische Staatsoper, at La Monnaie Brussels, the English National Opera, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Welsh National Opera as Claggart in Billy Budd, the Festwochen in Vienna, and other leading houses.