Erasmus reviews
The Detmold/Paderborn Musicology Department is delighted with its diverse Erasmus collaborations. Students and lecturers share their experiences here:
At the beginning of January 2026, we (Andreas Münzmay and Zélie Jouenne) travelled to Tours to get to know our new Erasmus partnership.
Our "contact trip", financed by the Detmold/Paderborn Musicology Seminar and the Paderborn University Internationalisation Fund, started in Paris. After a train journey of around an hour, we arrived in the centre of Tours. The Institute of Musicology is only a 15-minute walk from the railway station. Our first stop was the Bibliothèque Musicale de Touraine directly opposite, where we took a short tour of the former chapel and the collections with Bruno Terrien, the friendly librarian.
We then met Louise Bernard de Raymond, the current director of the institute. She showed us around the premises and told us about the various courses and degree programmes in Tours, both at Bachelor's and Master's level. We found many similarities with our programme, but also many potential additions for the students from Paderborn!
As we had a little time before the next meeting, we took a walk to the Loire and had a look round the city. The architecture and history of Tours are impressive. This city, which is a little smaller than Paderborn, really has a lot to offer: an opera house, several museums, an old town with half-timbered houses, great gastronomy...
Completely absorbed in our admiration, we arrive a little late for our last appointment of the day and meet Denis Vermaelen, the Erasmus advisor for musicology in Tours. A student from Paderborn is currently spending a semester abroad here and we see how he calmly and competently supports and guides her in drawing up her Learning Agreement. We are quickly convinced that the Erasmus students are in good hands here!
The next day, we are guests at the CESR (Centre d'Études Supérieures de la Renaissance; Renaissance Research Centre), where we meet Ailin Arjmand and Augustin Braud. They are specialists in digital editions, research data and music informatics, but also in lute tablatures and electroacoustic music, and here too we realise that our fields of research complement each other very well. This partnership is really promising for Master's students who are interested in digital editions!
