A little over a decade ago, Milwaukee musician and Testa Rosa lead vocalist Betty Blexrud-Strigens got a chance to see the legendary Patti Smith in Madison, around the time the punk rock icon released her 2000 album "Gung Ho." Even though the show came quite some time after Smith’s punk glory years, Blexrud-Strigens still remembers the rock legend providing a charge.

"It was fantastic, just the build up knowing that I was going to see this idol," Blexrud-Strigens recalled. "It wasn’t like a ‘remember when’ type of show. It seemed like she picked up exactly where she left off. Some bands tour, and you’re like, ‘Oh, they’re getting older,’ and they’ve tempered their music a little bit. She was everything we expected to see."

Now, it’s up to Blexrud-Strigens to bring the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Famer’s essence back to the stage with "Smith Uncovered," the latest musical exploration organized by Alverno Presents.

The concert, hosted on Saturday, Oct. 18 at 8 p.m. at Alverno College’s Pitman Theatre, gathers together an impressive roster of Milwaukee artists and musicians – including Die Kreuzen, Nineteen Thirteen, Karl Paloucek, Chris DeMay and Metropolitan Singers, Dry House Ruins and more – not to simply cover Smith’s greatest hits and poetry, but to reinterpret it in the hopes of gleaning more about the featured icon. The show will feature a range of performance types, from music to poetry and lyric readings to performance art to projections to photography – fitting for a multi-faceted performer with such an equally multi-faceted career.

Tickets for the show are $25.

"I want people to make sure they’re not just focusing on her first four albums and instead exploring her whole catalog," Blexrud-Strigens said. "I hope it shines a light on her additional work – and she’s still at it."

Selected as the concert event’s curator by Alverno Presents director David Ravel, Blexrud-Strigens was allowed to choose which American songwriter she wanted to focus her show upon. In the past, Alverno Presents featured reinterpretations of the works of Stephen Foster and Marvin Gaye, with an additional "Uncovered" concert, zeroing in on the music of Quincy Jones, is set for April next year. After cycling through several potential subjects, Blexrud-Strigens landed on who she wanted for her show.

"I wanted to pick a woman songwriter," Blexrud-Strigens said. "Then I was trying to think of American female songwriters, and she just kept coming back. I’ve always been a fan, and there’s a huge chunk of her work that I hadn’t explored either. I just thought it would lend itself to translation really well, compared to some songwriters. She’s just got so much work. She’s been really prolific. Even though she took 15 years off to raise her kids, she just continues to write music and literature."

Blexrud-Strigens then began developing the show, writing down a list of performers and musicians that she thought would interpret Smith’s music, lyrics and career in dynamic, unique and creative ways.

"I didn’t want it to all be rock ‘n’ roll, but I definitely thought there had to be some rock ‘n’ roll in there and some punk influence," she noted. "We wanted to make sure they weren’t just covers and that they were true reinterpretations. We really want the bands to push the directions of the songs. I don’t want it to be just a spoof of her or an impression of her. It’s kind of spawned a lot of different conversations, and a lot of people have a lot of great ideas about it. I just try to gather it and make it something people would like."

As a result, she wound up with the current lineup. Of course there’s a significant dash of rock, but the musical performances range across the board with acts like Nineteen Thirteen – a trio, consisting of two drummers and a cellist, that Blexrud-Strigens wanted so much for the concert that its date was pushed back a week in order to book them – a song written by Hello Death inspired by Smith’s book "Woolgathering" and sound artist Paloucek, who will play a rendition of "Horses" with projections of the song around him.

"I have this backing element that more or less approximates the band line for the piece," Paloucek explained. "The lyrics – the poetry of the song itself – will be projected as I perform it, and I’m hoping that mentally people will fill in the gap, as far as Patti’s vocal line and whatnot. It’s a bit of an experiment."

The diversity of interpretations and acts hope to reveal andget at the dynamic personality that is Patti Smith – one that Blexrud-Strigens noted goes much further than her Godmother of Punk reputation. It’s something the show’s curator even noticed all the way back at that concert in Madison years ago.

"She had this presence, and she kind of morphs into these different personas," Blexrud-Strigens said. "She’ll be an angel one minute, then a banshee the next."

"I think sometimes people just pigeonhole or stereotype her as the Godmother of Punk or Candy Slice," she continued. "One of the things that I think by looking deeper into her work is that you see the many facets of it, the many personas that are in it. And they’re all truthful to her. She changes personas, and she’s still always Patti Smith."