Anyone looking for “evidence of joy” in life need look no further than music, suggests Grammy winner Melissa Manchester.

The veteran singer-songwriter-performer has crafted a most satisfying career finding and sharing that joy with audiences around the world.

“Music is breath, music is life, music is evidence of joy,” Manchester elaborates when asked to talk about what music means to her. She believes that it resonates for and touches others because, “I write from my heart and sing from my soul.” That, she adds, “is the only answer I can come up with.”

She says it is difficult for her to truly gage what her contribution has been so far.

“I will say, however, that I am touched when someone mentions how a song of mine helped them in some way to clarify something or soothe them or give them strength during trying times,” Manchester acknowledged.

It all began for her in New York City, where her father was a bassoonist for the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and her mother was one of the first women to design and found her own clothing firm, Ruth Manchester Ltd. They introduced their daughter to all of the classics. By 15, Melissa already was a published poet

After graduating from the High School of the Performing Arts, where she studied acting, she entered New York University and enrolled in a songwriting class taught by Paul Simon. She found his advice to, “Find your own, unique way of expressing yourself as all the stories have been told,” helpful.

Landing a staff writing job at Chappell Music, she began performing as a solo singer-pianist in Greenwich Village clubs, where she met Bette Midler and her music director Barry Manilow.

As a back-up singer for Midler’s early touring, she fulfilled her dream of playing Carnegie Hall.

She has good memories of those days. “Bette is a brilliant woman who took pleasure in weaving a spell and taking the audience on her journey,” she recalls.

Six months after touring with Midler, she landed her own recording contract, going on to headline both Carnegie and Radio City music halls, and performing for audiences across the country, fueled by her hit single, “Midnight Blue.”

She and Kenny Loggins co-wrote the radio classic “Whenever I Call You Friend.” Barbara Streisand, Dusty Springfield, Alison Kraus, Roberta Flack, Johnny Mathis, Kathy Mattea and Peabo Bryson, among many others, have recorded her songs.

Her international hits, “Through the Eyes of Love” and “Don’t Cry Out Loud,” were written for her by her friends and frequent collaborators Carole Bayer Sager, Marvin Hamlisch and the late Peter Allen.

Manchester was nominated for a Grammy in 1978 and received the Grammy Award in 1982 for best female vocalist. In 1980 she became the first artist in the history of the Academy Awards to have two nominated movie themes in the same year -- “Through the Eyes of Love” and “The Promise.” She made additional Oscar history by performing both songs during the worldwide telecast.

The artist says that as she has gotten older, she finds songs are more precious to her because she sees them as “small moments captured and shared.” “Sometimes they give a voice to those who think they’re alone. I hope people find strength and courage and comfort in my songs,” she explains.

Manchester offers a career-spanning review of those songs, as well as an introduction to new material – “songs I’ve always wanted to sing” -- in her concerts.

She loves that it is different every night, seeing her performance as a shared experience with the audience. “I never know what people bring to the evening. I never know what story they might share with me afterwards,” she said.

“Magic moments” happen in concert when the music and the energy of the audience becomes one “and you’re all on the same journey for a few moments,” she said. “And then everyone goes back to their lives and all that’s left is the memory of that lived moment,” she added.

Her audience?

“They are people who have grown with me. We all started out at college age. Now we’ve traveled around many corners of life,” Manchester replied.

What she finds around her own personal corner these days continues to energize her.

“Life is very interesting lately and full of lovely adventures,” she said. She has a new song in Tyler Perry’s film, “For Colored Girls.” “It is a riveting and important film to see,” she said. “My song is ‘I Know Who I Am’ and it’s sung by the very talented Leona Lewis.”

Manchester also has a number of her songs in the upcoming (scheduled for March) film, “Dirty Girl.” “It’s a wonderful coming of age movie,” she said. “I’ve also written an original song for it called ‘Rainbird,’ which I perform. The wonderful writer/director Abe Sylvia took a pile of my songs and made them into a character themselves like a sort of weird Greek chorus, very inventive, very unexpected.”

Manchester believes her various interests help to make her a stronger overall artist. “It all works well together. For example, working on a theater project makes my approach to concert singing richer, as I approach it more from an acting perspective,” she explained.

She combined her acting and singing talents in starring roles in Andrew Lloyd Weber’s “Song and Dance” and “Music of the Night,” and early on in a recurring role in the hit television series Blossom. She also worked again with Bette Midler, co-starring in the film, “For the Boys.”

In a first for her career, Manchester wrote the musical, “I Sent a Letter to My Love,” based on the acclaimed Bernice Rubens novel of the same name. She performed the leading role in a National Public Radio broadcast, and the staged musical premiere in Boston at the North Shore Music Theatre in 2002.

She returned to the stage when she co-starred with Kelsey Grammer in Stephen Sondheim’s “Sweeney Todd” in the Ahmanson Theater in Los Angeles, and she starred in the Chicago premiere of “HATS!” That new musical contains several songs she co-wrote with Sharon Vaughn.

Manchester also composed for Disney’s “The Great Mouse Detective” and co-wrote the score for “Lady and the Tramp II.”

She received the Governor’s Award from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences for her contributions to the music and recording arts. Her body of work to date as a singer-songwriter was a featured exhibit at the Lyman Allyn Art Museum, New London, Ct.

Her 16th CD is “When I Look Down That Road.”

The artist said she never really has understood the term “re-inventing one’s self.”

“That said, I’ve tried so many styles of music, but to me they all come out of the same original impulse which is to create,” she said. “And the songs I’ve sung for so long are monologues that have grown deeper as I’ve grown deeper into my life. It’s a function of life to get more interesting as one becomes more aware and be more interested in one’s journey.”

Manchester doesn’t have to struggle to continue to find drive and motivation for what she does. “I love the rigors of this life,” she said. “I enjoy meeting fans after the shows. I love and respect my colleagues. I love to perform and share my stories. All of it has enriched my life.”