The Catskill Mountains are a large area in the southeastern portion of the U.S. state of New York. They are located approximately 100 miles north-northwest of New York City and forty miles southwest of Albany, starting just west of the Hudson River. The Catskills occupy much or all of five different counties (Delaware, Greene, Schoharie, Sullivan, and Ulster). As a cultural and geographic region, the Catskills are generally defined as those areas close to or within the borders of the Catskill Park, a vast forest preserve protected from many forms of development under New York state law.

Geologically, the Catskills are a mature dissected plateau, a once-flat region subsequently uplifted and eroded into sharp relief by watercourses. The Catskills form the northeastern end of, and highest-elevation portion of, the Allegheny Plateau (also known as the Appalachian Plateau). Although the Catskills are sometimes compared with the Adirondack Mountains further north, the two mountain ranges are not geologically related, as the Adirondacks are a continuation of the Canadian Shield. Similarly, the Shawangunk Ridge, which forms the southeastern edge of the Catskills, is part of the geologically distinct Ridge-and-Valley province, and is a continuation of the same ridge known as Kittatinny Mountain in New Jersey and Blue Mountain in Pennsylvania.

Johannes Abraham (Johan) de Meij (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈjohɑn dʏ ˈmɛi], born November 23, 1953, Voorburg) is a Dutch conductor, trombonist, and composer, best known for his Symphony No. 1, nicknamed "The Lord of the Rings" symphony.

Johan de Meij (Voorburg, 1953) studied trombone and conducting at the Royal Conservatory of Music in The Hague. He has earned international fame as a composer and arranger. His catalogue consists of original compositions, symphonic transcriptions and arrangements of film scores and musicals. His Symphony No. 1, The Lord of the Rings, based on Tolkien's best-selling novels of the same name, was his first composition for wind orchestra. It received the prestigious Sudler Composition Award in 1989. In 2001, the orchestral version was premiered by the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra. The Lord of the Rings has been recorded by renowned orchestras such as the London Symphony Orchestra, the North Netherlands Orchestra, the Nagoya Philharmonic Orchestra and the Amsterdam Wind Orchestra. His cello concerto Casanova was awarded First Prize at the International Composition Competition of Corciano [Italy] in 1999. A year later, De Meij won the Oman International Composition Prize with The Red Tower. His Symphony No. 3, Planet Earth was awarded 2nd Prize in the 2006 edition of the Corciano Competition. He received the Dutch Wind Music Award 2007 for his important role in the worldwide advancement of the genre. Besides composing and arranging, Johan de Meij is active as a performer, conductor, adjudicator and lecturer. As a trombone and euphonium player he has performed with the major orchestras and ensembles in The Netherlands, such as the Radio Chamber Orchestra, the Netherlands Wind Ensemble, the Dutch Brass Sextet, the Amsterdam Wind Orchestra and Orkest ‘De Volharding’. He has conducted some of the leading wind orchestras of Europe, Asia, Australia, North and South America and has led master classes around the world. www.johandemeij.com

John Catsimatidis b. 1948, is the owner, president, chairman, and CEO of the Red Apple Group and Gristedes Foods. He is also the chairman and CEO of the Red Apple Group subsidiary United Refining Company.

The Red Apple Group also has holdings in aviation and real estate interests in New York, Florida, and the U.S Virgin Islands. He owns and operates the Hellenic Times newspaper. John Catsimatidis has also received an Ellis Island Medal of Honor.

Catsimatidis grew up in New York, NY after coming to the United States as an infant with his parents from the island of Nisyros, Greece. He graduated from Brooklyn Technical High School in 1966.

While pursuing a BS in electrical engineering at New York University (NYU), Catsimatidis worked for an uncle in a small supermarket on 137th Street. Catsimatidis ultimately dropped out of college, and in 1971, convinced he could make money in the grocery business, he opened his first store on Manhattan's Upper West Side at 99th Street and Broadway under the name "Seven Eleven" (which was not part of the similarly named franchise). Soon afterwards he opened a Red Apple supermarket on 87th street just west of Broadway.