Singer and songwriter Judy Collins has seen both the great and the heartbreaking sides of life.

Triumphant and determined, Collins, 85, comes to The Hanover Theatre and Conservatory for the Performing Arts for her “Holidays and Hits Tour” on Dec. 3.

“I’m a working girl,” Collins said during a telephone interview from her home in New York City.

Collins has released 55 albums dating back to her 1961 debut with “A Maid of Constant Sorrow.” Her most recent was “Spellbound” in 2022 (nominated for a Grammy for Best Folk Album), which is the first time she wrote all the songs on one of her albums. A new album, also with all-new songs by Collins, is in the works.

Meanwhile, Collins is constantly performing. After her show here she has upcoming dates in California two days later on Dec. 5 and in Honolulu on Dec. 7 and 8.

“I love it,” she said of performing. “It’s what I count on to keep me on the planet.”

‘Determined to do what I love’

It also helps that “I have very good genes,” she added. “I’m sure that’s what has a lot to do with it: 46 years of sobriety doesn’t hurt. Also determination. I’m determined to do what I love.”

Collins sounded in a good and cheerful mood. She’s performed in Worcester several times over the years and said, “I’m glad I’m coming back.”

At The Hanover, Collins to be accompanied by her music director, Russell Walden, on piano and backing vocals.

She said the songs she’ll be performing here will include holiday favorites like “I’ll Be Home for Christmas,” “Let it Snow” and “Silver Bells.”

The show will also feature some of the new songs from “Spellbound” and signature Collins classics such as her Grammy-winning rendition of Joni Mitchell’s “Both Sides Now,” her haunting interpretation of Stephen Sondheim’s “Send in the Clowns” from the 1973 musical “A Little Night Music,” and her beloved revival of the old hymn “Amazing Grace.”

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An irresistible draw

Besides singing in the past at Mechanics Hall, Collins was also there in 2010 as the keynote speaker at the 35th anniversary celebration of AdCare Hospital, an alcohol and drug treatment facility. In her appearance then she reflected on her recording career and the backdrop of addiction and loss that shadowed it, including the suicide of her son. She spoke at AdCare the day before.

Born into a musical family — her blind father, Chuck Collins, was a singer, composer and broadcaster — Collins grew up in Colorado and was a piano prodigy, making her professional debut performing Mozart’s “`Concerto for Two Pianos” at 13.

But folk music became an irresistible influence, and by 16 she had headed out on her own and was playing guitar and singing in clubs in Denver and then New York City, including the legendary Village Gate. She came to the attention of Elektra Records, and released her first album, “A Maid of Constant Sorrow,” a collection of traditional folk songs.

Overcoming illness, challenges

In the 1960s and 70s, there would be a succession of hits with timeless sounding renderings that besides “Both Sides Now,” “Send in the Clowns” and “Amazing Grace” also included Joni Mitchell’s “Chelsea Morning,” Leonard Cohen’s “Suzanne” and “Who Knows Where the Time Goes” by Sandy Denny. Gradually, Collins started to introduce her own songs.

She had overcome polio and tuberculosis earlier in her life, and has openly acknowledged her battles with bulimia and alcohol, and now encourages others by talking and writing about her longtime sobriety and dealing with the tragic death of her son.

Collins is also a longtime activist, has acted, and co-directed with Jill Godmillow the Academy Award-nominated documentary “Antonia: Portrait of a Woman” about Antonia Brico, the first woman to conduct major symphonies around the world and was Collins’ classical piano teacher when she was young.

Among Collins’ several well-received books is her memoir “Sweet Judy Blue Eyes: My Life in Music.”

“Suite: Judy Blue Eyes” was a piece written by Stephen Stills and performed by Crosby, Stills & Nash that dealt with the imminent breakup of Stills and his girlfriend at the time — the strikingly blue-eyed Collins.

A love of libraries

If this all sounds like a lot to keep track of, Collins said she’s getting ready a second donation of her archives to the Library of Congress.

She supports the library. “My father got all his Braille books from the Library of Congress,” she said. Collins’ rendition of “Amazing Grace” was selected for preservation in the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically or artistically significant.”

She made her first donation of her archives about 15 years ago.

“I wanted to get my archives settled, so my relatives would not come around reading my notebooks,” she said wryly.

The donations are “everything — recordings, paintings, drawings, letters … If somebody wants to go in and write a book, they’re more than welcome.”

But they should perhaps bide their time.

“I do plan for another 20 years, so I’ve got some time ahead of me,” Collins said.

A volalite era

For anyone interested in what the tumultuous 1960s were like, “I cannot describe them. I had to live through them,” Collins said.

“The fights are obviously not over — (including) freedom for women to choose what to do with their bodies. It’s like the Chinese say, we live in interesting times. We have a lot to do and a lot to keep fighting for.”

Collins was talking on Election Day, Nov. 5, before the vote count.

She had voted. “I surely did. I go to my polling place. And I join in putting on a tag that says ‘I voted.’” Going to the polls in person is one of the reasons she calls herself “old school,” she said.

But at her shows these days, “I’m getting all kinds of audiences. Young. Old. It’s very gratifying …

“What I do, I give people a chance to sit in an audience. They can sit with their thoughts. Listening to music is very healing.”

A song’s persistence

“Collins’ recording of Send in the Clowns” became one of her biggest hits.

Other singers, including Frank Sinatra have taken on the song, but no one had more success with it than Collins, and her interpretation may have helped keep interest in “A Little Night Music” alive. Sondheim, in turn, may have had ambiguous feelings about the song’s success.

“He didn’t think much of it,” Collins said about what Sondheim thought about his own song.

But at a party in 1978, “He came over to me and he profusely thanked me,” Collins recalled. “That was the last time he did that.”

Still, “he got the proceeds, and I didn’t.”

Upcoming, besides a whole new album of new music, Collins said she will be recording a duet with Graham Nash of a song by David Crosby. And “Don McLean (of ‘American Pie’ fame) has a written an incredible song called ‘The Ballad of George Floyd’ … There’s a whole bunch of things in the works.”

In March, Collins will have a book of her poetry published, “Sometimes It’s Heaven: Poems of Love, Loss and Redemption.” She will be making an audiobook recording.

“I keep writing poems. Keep writing songs. One of the secrets is to try and write something every day,” she said.

Judy Collins: Holidays and Hits Tour

When: 7:30 p.m. Dec. 3

Where: The Hanover Theatre and Conservatory for the Performing Arts, 2 Southbridge St., Worcester

How much: $27.50, $39.50, $49.50, $64.50 and $84.50, depending on seat location. 877-571-7469; thehanovertheatre.org.