Il Divo tenor David Miller loves Utah. He's been here many times, having spent one summer doing workshops and performances with the Utah Festival Opera in Logan.
"It was about 10 years ago, and I was still in college," Miller said during a phone call from the group's stop in Seattle. "I did an audition, and they liked what they heard and took a chance with me."
A lot has happened to Miller since his college days. He graduated from Oberlin Conservatory with a degree in vocal performance and spent two years as an artist-in-residence with the Pittsburgh Opera. He joined Il Divo in 2003.
Still, Miller said, his decision to be a singer came late, compared to other singers.
"I didn't know I wanted to be a singer until I was in high school," he said. "Before that, I wanted to follow my father, who was in the military.
"He was a pilot and used to fly over the Bering Strait during the Cold War," Miller said. "And that's what I wanted to do until I discovered musical theater in high school and began hanging out with the drama kids.
"It's funny, because by the time I realized I wanted to start training classically, most singers at my age then had been taking lessons since they were 7," he said. "Needless to say, I had a lot of catch-up to do."
Eventually, Miller ventured into opera and was about to make his New York Metropolitan Opera debut when Il Divo came calling. Miller was literally thrown into the mix with baritone Carlos Marin, pop singer Sebastien Izambard and tenor Urs Buhler.
"We all come from different countries and different training backgrounds," Miller said. "And in the beginning, we knew it would be a challenge because of the culture and language barriers. I mean, Carlos is from Spain, Urs is from Switzerland and Sebastien is from France.
"Luckily for me, all of them spoke a little more English than any of us spoke the other languages. So we decided to use English as our universal language."
Miller said it took a couple of years to get used to the intonations.
"For example, Carlos has to think of what he wants to say in Spanish and then translate it straight over to English and say it," Miller said. "Sometimes what he says comes out a little stronger than how he thought it would."
Il Divo was organized by music producer and "American Idol" judge Simon Cowell. The idea, according to Miller and www.ildivo.com, was to mix "operatic technique with romantic and popular song."
So far, Il Divo has released five studio CDs — "Il Divo," "Ancora," "Siempre," "The Christmas Collection" and "The Promise."
The first four are certified multi-platinum sellers, all selling more than 1 million copies a piece. "The Promise," which was released back in November, has reached gold status, by selling more than 500,000 copies.
"Simon knows what he likes," Miller said. "And many people like what Simon likes."
Miller said the success has come with a price: crazy schedules.
"When we were first starting out, we would have appearances in multiple continents in less than two days," he said. "One day, we would be in New Zealand, and the next day, we had to be in Spain.
"It was crazy."
These days, Il Divo has acclimated to the many demands, as well as audience expectations.
"When we choose songs for the albums or for the live shows, we know we want to sing the ones that are filled with emotion," Miller said. "And whether we play in front of a few people or 50,000 people, we give it 110 percent.
"I can't wait to come back to Utah to sing for everyone."
If you go
What: Il Divo
Where: EnergySolutions Arena, 301 S. West Temple
When: June 5, 7:30 p.m.
How much: $56-$126
Phone: 801-325-7328
Web: www.ticketmaster.com
E-mail: scott@desnews.com