I've received many lovely compliments in my 30+ years of singing in public, but nothing beats that second or so of silence before the applause (and the stunned looks on the faces of those who had no idea I was doing the solo)!

If pushed, I would have to say the compliment I recieved from an Italian nun, after a concert in some town in Italy, in 2006. The chorus had just performed several religious pieces by English composers, the main one being a Requiem by John Rutter (a composer I loathe incidentally), to an audience which the chorus outnumbered 2-1. The nun made her way over to me and said I had a lovely voice and that of all the chorus, I was the only one who looked as if they meant what they were singing.

It's little things like that, that make it all worth while.

LTS