Yael Nachshon Levin was born in Tel Aviv in 1980 and trained at the New School in New York under vocalist Sheila Jordan, bassist Reggie Workman (whose own résumé runs through John Coltrane's band), and saxophonist Jane Ira Bloom. She has led her own ensembles since, working with trumpeter Avishai Cohen, bassist Haggai Cohen Milo, and pianist Harry Whitaker.

Since 2016 she has lived in Berlin, where she has also run a cultural salon called Framed since 2017. Her fourth album, Shining Long After They're Gone, was released in 2019 on LowSwing Records; that same year she co-authored a book with journalist Anja Reich, Getauschte Heimat: Ein Jahr zwischen Berlin und Tel Aviv (Exchanged Homeland: A Year Between Berlin and Tel Aviv).

Her fifth album, Tigers and Hummingbirds (2023, LowSwing Records), is a direct account of living with complex post-traumatic stress disorder, recorded over four days at the Emil Berliner Studios and later released as a limited hand-numbered audiophile vinyl edition.

Nachshon Levin works in a vocal jazz tradition shaped directly by her New School training under Sheila Jordan, Reggie Workman, and Jane Ira Bloom, three musicians spanning generations of the jazz vocal and post-bop traditions. Her most recent work turns that foundation toward direct, personal subject matter, using Tigers and Hummingbirds to trace a path through trauma rather than working from the standards repertoire.