By KRISTINA DORSEY

Day Arts Editor

Hilary Castle’s Concert for Conservation started out simply enough eight years ago, but the New-York-based violinist’s annual return to her hometown of Stonington has bloomed and become a happy tradition for music fans.

On this year’s concert sojourn — held Sunday at Union Baptist Church in Mystic — she is, to borrow a phrase, getting by with a little help from her friends.

She and Raymond Wong, who has been her piano accompanist for all of these shows, will be joined by singer-actress Nora Fox.

Fox and Castle were pals as kids growing up in Stonington (when Nora was Nora Blackall), and, even then, Fox was onstage. She played a von Trapp kid in the 1998 Broadway revival of “The Sound of Music” and, as a junior at Stonington High School, she acted in 2001’s “A Little Night Music” at Goodspeed Opera House. She went on to earn a degree in literary arts from Brown University, perform regularly in New York City, and take on such stage roles as Mimi in 2013’s “Rent” at the Ocean State Theatre Company.

Beyond that, Castle says, “She is a magical person to just be around and is one of the most hilarious people I’ve ever met. ... Every time I’ve performed with Nora, she draws you in as an audience member watching her, but, as a performer performing with her, she brings you to your best.”

Joining in on a piece during Sunday’s concert, too, will be Castle’s fiance, Geoff Green. He now runs the Whole Foods in Union Square, but he has also been a jazz guitarist and earned a graduate degree in jazz performance. While he realized that a jazz musician’s lifestyle wasn’t for him, he still plays from time to time, Castle says.

And Castle’s father, Tom, who plays piano as a hobby, will do a short piece by Dvorak on Sunday.

As of late last week, the exact program was still up in the air, although Hilary Castle expects it will be “kind of a spring play list.” There should be classical and contemporary music for violin and piano, along with musical theater pieces, arias and an original work by Fox.

“This is the most excited I’ve been for a Concert for Conservation. ... This concert is going to be so diverse and eclectic and creative,” Castle says.

The Concert for Conservation is a fundraiser for the educational programs at Denison Pequotsepos Nature Center in Mystic. Castle’s mother, Dorrit, had been helping raise money for the center for about a decade, and Hilary recalls attending nature programs at the site. She doesn’t remember whose idea it was for the first Concert for Conservation; she thinks it might have been a collective one.

Castle was in grad school at the time and looked forward to every performance opportunity. The concert in Mystic was a wonderful experience — and has continued to be so.

“The audience was so inviting and so hungry for creativity and artistry and this kind of performance,” she says.

Castle’s love of the violin dates back to when she was 5 and asked her parents for that instrument. Her parents didn’t agree to do that then, but, when she asked again as a 7-year-old, they did. She started taking lessons and continued on, through middle school — when, she says, playing violin was not considered a cool thing — and high school. Being a violinist became a part of her identity.

She earned a bachelor’s of music from Boston University’s College of Fine Arts and a masters of music from Mannes College.

Castle has gone on to play with, among others, violinist and composer Mark O’Connor and the New Haven Symphony Orchestra, and she has performed at locales from Carnegie Hall to the Sydney Opera House. She has taught, too.

This past fall, though, Castle suffered a shoulder injury due to muscle overuse as a violinist.

“I was in denial for a while about the degree of the pain because it would come and go,” she says.

The truth was, though, that “I have just used these muscles way too much in 31 years of life. ... It really is the universe telling me kind of to slow down and focus.”

She went to an “amazing doctor” who deals with a lot of musicians and athletes. She had to stop playing the violin for about two months, which, she says, made her realize, “Wow, I love this. This is part of me.”

She’s back playing and says, “We’re taking it day by day, but things are looking good.”

As always, she’s looking forward to returning for the Concert for Conservation and performing for all those the audience members.

“Seeing a complete new handful of people is something that makes me so happy, equally (as happy) as seeing people I know and recognize who come back year after year,” Castle says.

Concert for Conservation, 2 p.m. Sunday, Union Baptist Church, 119 High St., Mystic; $21.25 for Denison Pequotsepos Nature Center members, $25 non-members, $5 students with ID; (860) 536-1216, dpnc.org.