Di Lello was born in New York City to Vincent and Angela (née Salvatore), and received a bachelor's degree from Sarah Lawrence College in 1974.
From 1967 to 1970, Di Lello worked with the Everyman Company and the Chalk Circle Players in Brooklyn, under the direction of Geraldine Fitzgerald[1] and Brother Jonathan O.S.F.
[9] In the summer of 1974, Di Lello was Artistic Director of the Everyman Company and directed a production of Mr. Esteban, a contemporary musical adaption of Shakespeare's Macbeth.
[12] In various productions of these operas, Di Lello conducted, sang the voice of the Old Man in Purgatory, and performed the role of the Lame Beggar in The Cat and the Moon.
In the January 1979 issue of Dance Magazine, Amanda Smith wrote that Peaches' Melisma created a “slightly eerie limbo” through which the work slowly emerged.
Based in New York City, the Ed Di Lello Group was active from 1978 through 1982, performing at various downtown spaces as well as the American Dance Festival, Jacob's Pillow, and Wesleyan University.
Members of the Group included Carol Hansen, Sheri Alley, Ron Lybeck, Donald Joyce, Paul Di Lello, Rebecca Perrin, Jane Desmond, Rob Kaplan, Arkady Koffman, Ricardo Mendez, Louise Rogers, Nusha Martynuk, and Patricia Graf.